Aloha Australia! Hawaiian Airlines starts flights to Sydney

The first nonstop flight by Hawaiian Airlines from Honolulu to Australia will touch down at Sydney Airport today.

The airline's scheduled services from Australia will commence tomorrow night when flight HA22 departs Sydney for Honolulu.

"Australia is a major tourism drawcard for American travellers, and Sydney is both the gateway to Australia and a great attraction in its own right," said Hawaiian Airlines President and Chief Operating Officer, Mr Dunkerley. "It was not a difficult decision for us to select Honolulu-Sydney as our first long haul route.

"Our new flights will operate four times weekly, and will add much needed airline seats to the Australia - Hawaii market," he said.

Mr Dunkerley met this morning with NSW Tourism Minister Ms Sandra Nori, to detail the airline's new services, and present the Minister with a traditional floral lei greeting, prior to hosting a special luncheon for key travel industry executives. 

The flights are nonstop from Honolulu and are timed to connect with incoming services from six mainland US cities - Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, adding a new travel option from each of these cities to Australia.

Following today's first flight, southbound services will depart Honolulu each Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and arrive in Sydney the following day at 7:35 p.m.

The outbound flight HA22 will depart Sydney at 9.20pm on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, crossing the international dateline and arriving in Honolulu at 11.10am the same day.