Airbus At 50 Years

Airbus Industrie is celebrating 50 years of aircraft development!

In its early years, Airbus aircraft did not make many appearances at HNL, until the early 1980s with Wardair Canada, when they used their A310s for service from the Canadian west coast. The A310s continued with other now-defunct Canadian carriers, Royal Air, and Canada 3000. There has not been regular scheduled service with the A300; though there have been several ferry flights that have transited through.

Philippine Airlines and China Airlines had A340-300 service from MNL and TPE (sometimes via NRT) respectively. Philippine Airlines has since converted to the A330-300. China Airlines converted to the A330-300, but has since upgraded to the A350-900.

The A330 series has become quite common at HNL, with Hawaiian Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Asiana Airlines, Korean Air, AirAsia X, China Eastern Airlines, and Air China all serving HNL with the wide-body twin. Qantas Airways and JetStar Airlines had A330 service, but has since converted to Boeing airliners (747-400 and 787-8) for their service to HNL from Australia. Qantas will return to A330-300 service in August.

As far as the A320 series goes, Virgin America was the first to introduce A320ceo ETOPS service between California and HNL in 2015 The airline converted to the A321neo during certain travel periods. Since their merger with Alaska Airlines, service has been converted to the 737NG. Currently, American Airlines uses the A321ceo for its LAX service. Hawaiian Airlines uses the A321neo for  certain routes on their west coast service.

The only A320 series delivery flights to stop through HNL were for Air New Zealand and Freedom Air in mid-2000s. HNL does see ferry flights by Allegiant Air, as they purchase A319s and A320s from Cebu Pacific. Lanmei Airlines has ferried A319s and A320s through from the mainland to Kampuchea. There have also been ACJ flights that have transited through HNL.

All Nippon Airways is the only airline that has scheduled A380 service between NRT and HNL. Prior to ANA's service, there have been several Qantas A380 diversions to HNL for medical and technical reasons.

One of the original CS300 (now, the A220-300) testbeds, C-FFDO, has been here a few times stopping between Canada and Asia. With Airbus taking over the Bombardier CS Series, and renaming it the A220, it has been the subject to the Hawaiian 717-200 replacement speculation.

On the military side, the Royal Canadian Air Force's CC-150 Polaris (A310) transports frequently stop through. The Royal Australian Air Force will transit their KC-330s through Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The Armeé de l'Air will transit A400Ms and A340s through HNL as they go to and from French Polynesia.


Further details on the Airbus celebration in this press release.