United Airlines has filed plans to end the only nonstop flight between Hilo, HI and the U.S. mainland.
The route has been running since 2011. The discontinuation of the flight between Hilo International Airport (ITO), located on the east side of the Island of Hawaii, and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), will go into effect on January 7, 2023.
United currently flies between ITO and LAX 5 times per week, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays:
| Flight | From / to | ETD | ETA |
| UA 1004 | Los Angeles (LAX/KLAX) | 7:08 p.m. | – |
| UA 1004 | Hilo (ITO/KITO) | – | 9:47 p.m. |
| Flight | From / to | ETD | ETA |
| UA 1706 | Hilo (ITO/KITO) | 11:07 p.m. | – |
| UA 1706 | Los Angeles (LAX/KLAX) | – | 7:20 a.m. +1 |
Once that route is gone, travelers who prefer to fly out of ITO will have to take an inter-island flight to Kahului, Maui or Honolulu via Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines or Mokulele Airlines. If they want to go to the mainland, they’ll need to make a connection.
“We regularly adjust our schedule and continue to be a leader in service to Hawaii from the continental U.S., including offering the most service to Kona of all U.S. carriers,” a United Airlines spokesperson said.
Well, that’s nice, but Kona is about an hour and a half drive from Hilo.
Other airlines that also service KOA include Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines, among others.
United says the ITO-LAX route is not popular and they’re planning to end it due to low demand.
Feature Image (cropped): Bill Rand / Wikimedia / CC-BY-2.0
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3 comments
“Once that route is gone, travelers who prefer to fly out of ITO will have to take an inter-island flight to Kahului, Maui or Honolulu via Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines or Mokulele Airlines. If they want to go to the mainland, they’ll need to make a connection.”
Or drive to Kona, like you state later. This early misinformation mis-characterizes the story.
Operative words: “…travelers who prefer to fly out of ITO.” 😉
Oakland to Hilo direct even just once a week would seem easy to do…then the same plane could hop over to Kona, then hop over to Honolulu ?
Then Honolulu, Kona, Hilo for the return to Oakland ?
Kona is almost a 2 hour drive from Hilo.
What happened to customer service ?