Japan Airlines to resume nonstop Tokyo-Kona flights this fall

Japan Airlines has announced it will be resuming nonstop flights between Tokyo Narita and Hawaii Island’s Kona airport this fall. The flights on the route will be resumed after an interval of seven years. Earlier, Hawaiian Airlines launched the Tokyo Haneda-Kona in December last year.

David Ige, Governor of Hawaii Island, said, “We consider resuming of nonstop flights as quite significant because it signifies the importance of this key route between Japan and Hawaii Island. Moreover, it also denotes Kona’s vitality and development as Hawaii Island’s second international airport and U.S. port of entry. It is hoped that Hawaii’s tourism economy will get a boost.”

Media reports said that Japan Airlines will launch nonstop flights between Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport effective from September 15, 2017. The flights on the route will be operated daily with the help of a Boeing 767-300ER aircraft. It may be recalled that Japan’s national carrier initially launched the flights on the route on June 2, 1996. The route was continuously served for nearly 15 years. The service was however suspended in October 2010 as part of the airline’s restructuring plans.

According to the reports, Japan Airlines while suspending the route in 2010 had also made it clearly at the same time that it will resume flights services in future. The route is being considered quite important because of its contributions made to Hawaii’s regional economy by boosting tourism. Apart from Tokyo Narita-Haneda flights, Japan Airlines is also operating four daily flights between Honolulu International Airport and Narita International Airport. The airline is also offering once daily flights to Honolulu from Nagoya and Osaka as well.

Meanwhile, Japan Airlines has announced it will be providing free Internet access to all its customers traveling on domestic routes. The airline had been offering inflight Wi-Fi as a paid service since July 2014, and has now decided to offer it on a complimentary basis.