The Hawaii Express ‘Contemporary’ Arrives Ahead of Schedule

Previously scheduled for creation early in 2009, The Hawaii Express (www.thehawaiiexpress.com) entry into the contemporary virtual airline market has been fast-tracked with the acquisition of an Airbus Industrie A380 aircraft. This move into the modern marketplace comes after weeks of deliberation over aircraft types, routes, and back-stories. The A380 represents a marked difference in available technology while still adhering to the common strategy of moving as many people to and from Hawaii as quickly as possible.

The A380 is currently offered in the classic livery but will soon be offered with the new Dolphin Prism livery developed for the contemporary airline. This features leaping dolphins in the same colors as the stripe along the side of the aircraft. Routes for the A380 currently include service to Honolulu from Los Angeles and San
Francisco, but in development are flights from Chicago to Honolulu via San Francisco,  Dallas-Ft. Worth to Honolulu via Los Angeles, Tokyo to Honolulu non-stop and Sydney to Honolulu non-stop.

The Hawaii Express (THX) has also made plans to acquire an Airbus A340-313 and the aircraft is currently completing its final checks prior to delivery. The aircraft will feature the Dolphin Prism livery and pictures are available on their website. The A340 will take up the medium density routes, like Atlanta to Honolulu via Los Angeles, Denver to Honolulu via San Francisco, Brisbane to Honolulu non-stop and Nadi/Fiji to Honolulu non-stop.

Scheduled for entry around Christmas 2008, an Airbus around Christmas, an A330-200 will be introduced and will operate non-stops to Honolulu from Faa’a/Tahiti, Anchorage and Seattle. There may be one more flight for this aircraft but the announcement for that will not be forthcoming until after the beginning of December.

The 21st Century version of the airline will not offer service around the islands as the 1983 version does, nor will it offer service to Kona. There is also a chance that the A380 will be dropped after Thanksgiving and the A340-313 will replace it on those routes. “While I like the A380 and it fits this new philosophy of moving people in mass quantities,” says President Peter McKay, “it just it way too expensive to operate on what would normally be considered a ‘short route’ compared to the aircraft’s normal range envelope.”

In a related story, THX President, Peter McKay announced that he would not relaunch Air Fresno, a fictional regional airline based out of Fresno Yosemite International Airport (KFAT). “I cannot concentrate on two virtual airlines,” he said, “and The Hawaii Express has more potential than a small fictional regional airline.” The Air Fresno website will be continue to be hosted for the time being but it will not be updated further, and after the first of the year all of the website pages will be deleted.

Visit their website for more information.