It’s been a full year since we reported that Hawaii was to get direct service to Shanghai. Today the announcement became official according to the Shanghai Daily.
Starting August 9 you can fly straight through on SkyTeam. It’s Delta to Honolulu connecting with China Eastern to Shanghai. This is the first ever service connecting Hawaii and China. It will initially operate twice-weekly, on Tuesdays and Fridays.
We’re expecting to see over 80,000 new Chinese visitors in the first year, together with perhaps $60 million in new revenue. Chinese travelers abroad are known to be lavish spenders whose budgets often include luxury items we avoid.
This new service will reconnect for the very first time the significant “Chinese Overseas” ancestry of Hawaii with mainland China. It looks to be great for U.S. mainland visitors as well, who will be able to break the otherwise jet-lag laden transit to China with a Hawaiian vacation.
Shanghai is just six hours earlier than Hawaii (albeit the next day).
We’ll keep our eyes peeled for any good old fashioned Hawaii Travel Deals should they arise on this new route.
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