Hawaiian Air Adds New Zealand Starting March 13

By Rodney S. Yap

File photo courtesy of Boeing.

Hawaiian Airlines announced Sunday it will offer nonstop flights between Honolulu and Auckland, New Zealand, three times a week beginning March 13.

This will mark Hawaiian’s eighth new destination since expanding service to Tokyo in November 2010.

It also comes less than a month after Hawaiian announced it would begin three-days-a-week service to Brisbane, Australia, in Nov. 27. With this latest flight, Hawaiian will now fly three routes to the Oceania region that comprises Australia and New Zealand. Hawaiian already offers daily service to Sydney after debuting there in May 2004.

New Zealand has been a small yet growing market for the state with about 21,000 arrivals in 2011, up 15.4% from the year before according to the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Through May of this year, arrivals from New Zealand were up 5.1% from the same period a year ago.

Spending from New Zealand visitors in Hawaii hit $38 million in 2011.

Mike McCartney, president and CEO of HTA, told a Honolulu newspaper the New Zealand route is “more positive news for Hawaii’s tourism economy” and said the additional service has the potential to bring in up to an estimated $50 million in annual visitor spending and $5.4 million in tax revenue.