Hawaiian Airlines has announced the return of flights from the island state to the east coast of the US, which are the longest domestic flights on the planet.
From December, the airline will restart its twice-weekly nonstop service between Honolulu and Boston, as well as a three-time weekly service between Hawaii and New York.
Long distance domestic travel:
Honolulu's Daniel K Inouye International Airport (HNL) and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS):
- Distance: 8200.78km
- Duration: To Boston - 9 hours and 30 minutes
- Duration: To Hawaii - 11 hours and 35 minutes
Just to compare, the longest flight in Aotearoa is Air New Zealand's non-stop flight from Auckland to Invercargill, which takes around two hours. Our shortest is likely to be Auckland to Whangarei which takes just 20 minutes.
Last week Hawaii began exempting travellers from its 14-day quarantine with proof of a negative COVID-19 state-approved test within 72 hours of the final leg of departure.
"We're pleased with increased demand for travel to Hawaii, and we're excited to once again offer our East Coast guests the convenience of our nonstop flights as we welcome them to the islands with new health and safety measures," said Brent Overbeek, senior vice president of revenue management and network planning at Hawaiian Airlines.
The airline is offering customers departing from any of its US mainland gateway cities a mail-in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) saliva test online.
The test kit, which is available for travellers of all ages including children, will be express mailed overnight to guests who will self-collect their sample with assistance from a testing supervisor in a video call. The kit is express shipped overnight to a lab, which will process and analyse the sample and provide travellers their results electronically within 24 hours.
