Hawaiian Airlines has commenced new flights to Maui with service to Kapalua effective March 1, 2017. There are four flights daily between Kapalua and Honolulu and two flights between Kapalua and Kahului Maui. Tickets are available on the Hawaiian Airlines website starting at $49 each way from Kahului. Included at that special price is travel from now through January 2018, including some summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday dates.
“Kapalua Airport has played an integral part in our company’s history, and we are delighted to restart service on the 30th anniversary of Hawaiian’s first flight to West Maui as we continue serving the travel needs of our community” — Peter Ingram, Hawaiian Air Exec. VP.
Flights are being operated using Ohana by Hawaiian ATR-42 turboprop aircraft carrying 48 passengers. Beat of Hawaii notes, however, that rental cars at this airport can run up to $100 more per week. Will that be a deal breaker for you or does the convenience of Kapalua outweigh that?
The inaugural flight yesterday took place on a rainy Maui day, exactly 30 years following the airport’s opening. West Maui Airport, just six miles north of Lahaina, is ideally located for passengers wanting to avoid the drive from Kahului. It’s code letters, JHM stands for John Henry Magoon, prior president of Hawaiian Airlines, which developed the airport in the 1980’s. Magoon’s family took part in yesterday’s inaugural celebration.
Hawaiian Airlines joins Mokulele Airlines, which also flies to Kapalua from both Honolulu and Kona.
The advantage of Kapalua is that it brings visitors very near iconic West Maui resorts. The area was originally developed in the 1960’s starting with the Kaanapali Beach Resort, located just north of historic whaling town Lahaina. Many major resorts and condos now line West Maui’s shores. In earlier times, the area was a retreat for Hawaiian royalty as well as the capitol of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Photo courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines.
OMG – so glad to see this posting. On our last trip to Maui it took almost 3 hrs to Drive from OGG to Mahinahina (normally 45-60min.) our return to Calif. took OVER 24 hours because HAL could not get another plane to OGG and by the time we were flown to HNL there were no flights til the next day! Could have been a different story if we had flown directly to HNL from Kapalua at the start of the day.
Mahalo for your constant good work!!
Thanks Val.
Aloha.
Great news about the new HNL-JHM route. I am the founder of AutoSlash.com and I was curious about your comment. It is true that there is less competition at JHM with only Avis, Budget, Enterprise, National and Alamo compared to 10+ companies at OGG, so it does make sense that rates could be higher there.
That said, after running 10 different searches for varying dates and vehicle types, I found that in many cases rates at JHM were as good if not better than OGG. Additionally, AutoSlash applies coupons and discount codes to get the rate down, and in some cases discounted JHM rates can save a fair amount of money vs. OGG.
If you’re staying in the Kaanapali area, JHM is obviously more convenient, so I’d encourage people to compare airfare cost and hotel to see what makes the most sense from the $ vs. convenience standpoint.
Note that you can get a discounted rate quote at either airport at http://www.autoslash.com/quote.