Hawaiian Airlines is trimming its Big Island schedule for Hilo and Kona by a total of three daily round-trip flights beginning next month.
The state’s dominant interisland carrier said Monday it is eliminating one evening round-trip flight per day (out of 15) to and from Hilo, and one evening and one morning round trip per day (out of 23) to and from Kona.
“We are taking flights out of periods that have enough frequency to allow us to maintain the robust schedule of flying that our residents, in particular, expect,” Hawaiian spokeswoman Ann Botticelli said.
When the changes take effect, Hawaiian still will be flying 14 round trips between Honolulu and Hilo between 5 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. and 21 flights between Honolulu and Kona between 5 a.m. and 9:50 p.m.
“We have not seen operational disruption at our airports due to the volcano, and continue to encourage those who wish to visit Hawaii island to do so,” Botticelli said.
Hawaiian passenger traffic up 4.7% in May
Hawaiian Airlines’ passenger traffic rose 4.7 percent in May as it provided more flights than during the year-earlier period.
The state’s largest carrier said Monday it transported just over 1 million passengers during the month compared with 966,179 in May 2017. Its load factor, or the percentage of seats filled, dipped 0.8 percentage points to 85.9 percent from 86.7 percent.
Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, increased 6.5 percent to 1.68 million from 1.58 million. Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, rose 5.6 percent to 1.45 million from 1.37 million.
‘New name’ IHOP says ‘b’ is for burgers
NEW YORK >> IHOP, which teased a name change to IHOb earlier this month, says the “b” is to promote its burger menu.
The pancake chain has been coy about whether the name flip is permanent, saying Monday that it was “for the time being.” Pressed for details, the company would not give an end date for IHOb, but referred to the “tongue-in-cheek name change” and said it was tied to the summer burger promotion.
The company, known for breakfast, already had burgers on the menu but is adding a line made of Black Angus ground beef. It started using the IHOb name on social media, on its website and for in-store promotions.
The hints of a name change had spurred guesses on social media — and some disappointment Monday at the revelation.
ON THE MOVE
International Market Place has announced the following:
>> Jillian Parel is the new marketing and sponsorship specialist for International Market Place. Her responsibilities include implementing and managing promotions and events as well as assisting with public relations initiatives, marketing and advertising. Parel was previously the creative content coordinator for the Howard Hughes Corp., where she maintained and managed their social media accounts, newsletters, blogs, website assets and videos.
>> Irene Honma is International Market Place’s newest marketing and tourism specialist. Her responsibilities include driving tourism traffic as well as sales to the center targeting eastbound visitors through social media, events, public relations and media. Honma previously served as director of sales and marketing for PacRim Marketing Group and PRTech LLC.