Hawaiian Airlines will add its fifth Japan gateway in June with the launch of new service three times a week to Sendai, starting June 25, pending Japan government approval.
The new flights will be the first scheduled service between Sendai and Hawaii since another carrier left the market in 2004, and among the first new services to be introduced at Sendai Airport since it was closed for more than a month in 2011 due to damage caused by the Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
“We are delighted to be bringing the aloha of our island home to a region being rebuilt after massive devastation two years ago,” said Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian’s president and chief executive officer, in a written release. “Hawaii is a place for relaxation, healing and rejuvenation and we look forward to making visitors from Tohoku feel as though they are in Hawaii from the moment they board our flights.”
Hawaiian’s new Sendai service will connect with and complement its existing service to Sapporo, operating nonstop from Honolulu to Sendai, with one-stop service returning to Honolulu via Sapporo.
Starting June 25, Hawaiian’s Flight HA 441 will depart Honolulu International Airport on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 12:15 p.m., cross the international dateline and arrive at Sendai Airport at 4 p.m. the following day.
The return Flight HA 442 will then continue to Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport at 5:55 p.m. on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, arriving at New Chitose at 7:10 p.m. before departing to Honolulu at 9:10 p.m., crossing the international dateline and arriving in Honolulu at 9:50 a.m. the same day.
Sendai is the largest city in the Tohoku region of northern Honshu, which has a population of more than 9 million people. Sendai is known in Japan as “Mori no Miyako,” or Forest City, for its many green spaces in its city center.
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