The projected growth in air seats to Hawai‘i for 2012, up 7.7 percent over last year, is outstanding news for Hawai‘i’s tourism economy. As an island state, airlift and access is essential for a thriving tourism economy.  The addition of 700,000 more seats into our state represents our collective efforts with industry partners to stimulate demand to the Hawaiian Islands.

We were pleased to see increases across all of our major market areas, with the strongest showing in the Other Asia market (China and South Korea), up 52.2 percent and providing close to 150,000 additional air seats. Despite the recent shutdown of Air Australia, the Oceania region (Australia and New Zealand) will also see significant growth, up 21.6 percent over last year, thanks to Hawaiian Airlines, Jetstar and Air New Zealand increasing their capacity to Hawai‘i.

The HTA remains committed to working with our marketing partners and the airline industry to drive demand and support healthy airlift for Hawai‘i.