Hawaiian Airlines plans to fly daily from Long Beach Airport to Honolulu starting June 1.
Hawaiian will be a new airline and Honolulu a new route at the airport. Air carriers now at Long Beach are JetBlue, Southwest, Delta and American. All current flights from Long Beach are to continental U.S. destinations.
The airport’s 50 permanent slots had been full, meaning there wasn’t room for a new airline.
A spokesperson said the airport keeps a waiting list of airlines interested in space and when JetBlue relinquished a slot, Hawaiian got it.
The notice of Hawaiian Airlines’ plans came over the weekend on OAG, a UK-based website that tracks planned routes by carriers, and was picked up by various bloggers including CrankyFlier.com and RoutesOnline.com. Flights are already being sold through online travel agencies.
Long Beach Airport added flights from Southwest in mid-2016.
Hawaiian has been upgrading its branding and service in recent years, including new uniforms and planes. The Honolulu route will fly on the Airbus A321neo, a newer model aircraft.
