If you love the South Pacific as we do, today’s announcement from Hawaiian Airlines will please you. Today they announced service to the Cook Islands starting in May 2023. The once-weekly flight of 2,941 miles is between Honolulu (HNL) and Rarotonga (RAR); both are in the same time zone. That’s right, no jet lag!
Now visitors from Hawaii and the 15 mainland gateway cities served by Hawaiian Airlines will have a convenient way to visit the Cook Islands. You may recall that Aloha Airlines flew this route previously, as did Hawaiian, between 1987 and 1993.
“We are delighted to grow our South Pacific network by offering our guests access to the Cook Islands, an archipelago that shares Hawai’i’s Polynesian roots and natural beauty. — Peter Ingram, CEO, Hawaiian Airlines.
The Cook Island Prime Minister Mark Brown said, “We look to rebuild our tourism industry and strengthen access to our northern hemisphere markets.”
Tickets to the Cook Islands can be purchased starting December 7.
Look for HA 495, which will depart HNL at 4 PM on Saturdays, arriving in RAR at 10:25 PM the same day. The return flight, HA 496, is set to depart a full 24 hours later, at 11:35 PM on Sundays, arriving in Honolulu at 550 AM on Mondays. That’s a change from the nonstop to Tahiti (Papeete) that returns to Honolulu shortly after arrival.
The flights will be aboard Hawaiian’s narrow-body A321neo aircraft, which, unfortunately, does not feature lie-flat seating in business class. It has 16 business recliners, 45 extra legroom seats, and 128 regular economy seats. Entertainment is via wireless streaming to customer devices, and seats feature USB outlets.
I’m intrigued to travel there but would need to research what there is to do if we would need to stay either one day only or a full week before being able to depart back to Hawaii.
I don’t think Hawaiian Airlines ever flew this route before. I can only remember Aloha Airlines flying between Hawaii and Cook Islands. Aloha Airlines only had regular service for a brief time before the company went bankrupted. I think it was a shorter period of time than the 1987 to 1993 time frame. It was not a profitable route so both airlines cannot be running at the same time.
Any chance Hawaiian could include a stop at Christmas Island?. Fisherman’s paradise and no service from HNL since Fiji Air bailed in 2020
We’ve been crying since Air New Zealand stopped flying to Raro. We’ve been going at least once a year for over 20 years. A bonus for us is that we can fly out of our local airport in Sacramento and not have to fly to LA first. We are packed and ready to go! Great for the Cook Islands economy!!
Can’t wait to read your article regarding this trip! I’m very interested in travel to the Cook Islands.
I am very interested in going. Can one connect to Bali from there? Bali has always been a bucket list thing.
Aloha Rob +Jeff. YES!!!!! I am excited to read about this new adventure. What will the cost be and will they have a air,hotel and car PKG? Am going to look up and see what it’s like there. Keep me posted please.Majalo Debra
Hi Debra.
There’s no competition so we expect airfares to start at about $1,000 RT. Ouch.
Aloha.
What are they now round trip?