Domestic airline seats into Lihu’e Airport grew by 50 percent in 2003 compared to 2002, to an estimated 281,930 seats last year. That’s according to an analysis of the Official Airlines Guides flights schedules conducted by representatives of the Hawai’i
Domestic airline seats into Lihu’e Airport grew by 50 percent in 2003 compared to 2002, to an estimated 281,930 seats last year.
That’s according to an analysis of the Official Airlines Guides flights schedules conducted by representatives of the Hawai’i Visitors & Convention Bureau.
Lihu’e Airport was expected to record a 4.7 percent share of all domestic air seats to the state (compared to 1.7 percent in 2000), totaling 281,930 seats in 2003.
That is nearly a 50 percent increase compared to 2002.
More direct flights, from American Airlines, United Airlines, and seasonal Lihu’e-Oakland nonstops on Aloha Airlines, as well as Mainland-direct charter service during the summer months, helped pace that large increase.
Carriers added over 490,000 new, scheduled, nonstop domestic air seats to Hawai’i in 2003, reaching an estimated record high of 5,951,644 total seats, according to HVCB representatives.
The number of air seats from the Mainland to Hawai’i was expected to surpass the 2002 level by 9 percent, and eclipse the previous record high seen in 2000 by 4.6 percent.
This performance was expected to boost total nonstop air seats to the islands to 8.6 million last year, 3.7 percent above 2002 levels, the HVCB official said.
Taking into consideration all flights reported on Official Airline Guides (OAG) schedules as of December 2003:
- While nonstop domestic service increased to all of Hawai’i’s major airports in 2003, gains in air-seat capacity to the Neighbor Islands outpaced increases to Honolulu;
- Honolulu accounted for 65.5 percent of all air seats from the Mainland to Hawai’i in 2003, totaling 3.9 million seats (up 5.5 percent over 2002);
- Kahului, Maui increased its share from 18.1 percent in 2000 to 23.3 percent in 2003. Last year, total domestic air seats to Maui will reach 1.4 million (up 12.4 percent over last year);
- Air seats from the Mainland to Kona on the Big Island were expected to reach a share of 6.5 percent in 2003 (compared to 5.1 percent in 2000), for a total of 385,011 seats (up 11.5 percent over 2002).
The trend in increasing domestic air seats to Hawai’i is projected to continue in 2004, the HVCB official said.
The OAG schedules as of December 2003 show a first-quarter 2004 increase of 14.3 percent, and a second-quarter 2004 increase of 10.4 percent (resulting in a 12.3-percent rise in domestic capacity for the first half of 2004).
