Flights to Honolulu from Osaka

Two airlines already ply the 4,093-mile Honolulu to Osaka run, and if the Japanese government gives the go-ahead--there’s about to be a third.Delta and Japan Airlines already fly from HNL to KIX.Subject to government approval, Hawaiian Airlines says it intends to begin nonstop Honolulu flights to Osaka Jul. 12. One of the reasons for the move, according to Hawaiian President and CEO Mark Dunkerley, is unexpectedly strong response to the carrier’s recently inaugurated Honolulu flights to Tokyo Haneda. That’s prompted the airline to accelerate transpacific expansion plans to Japan.

Bolstering Hawaiian’s Honolulu flight to Osaka is the fact that from Osaka there are same-day ground connections to a slew of major Japanese cities. Osaka is a city of three million souls, and part of the second-largest population center in the country.Initially, Hawaiian’s Honolulu to flight to Osaka will be via a 264-passenger 767-300ER. Eventually, one of the carrier’s new 294-seat Airbus A330s will supplant the venerable Boeings.

Should the Japanese government give the go-ahead, here’s the schedule: Hawaiian Flight 449 will depart Honolulu at 2:10 p.m., and arrive Osaka’s offshore (it’s on a man-made island) Kansai International Airport at 6:00 p.m. the following day. The return trip is Hawaiian Flight 450. It pushes back from the gate at Kansai at 9:30 p.m. and arrives Honolulu at 10:50 a.m. the same day. That bit of airborne arithmetic is possible by virtue of the fact that Osaka is 19 hours ahead of Honolulu, and the flight crosses the International dateline.Hawaiian Airlines is putting on a full-court press across the Pacific. This is the third Asian city the carrier will have added over nine-month period. Hawaiian launched nonstop Honolulu flights to Tokyo Haneda in Nov. 2010, and nonstop Honolulu flights to Seoul Incheon Jan. 2011.