Earlier today, AirAsia X announced that it would increase the frequency of its Osaka Kansai – Honolulu route from four-times-a-week to daily starting in August 2018.
AirAsia X’s flights between Osaka Kansai and Honolulu were launched back in June 2017 as an extension of the airline’s service between Kuala Lumpur and Osaka. It was the first, and to date is the sole, AirAsia X’s route to North America.
The first flight took place on June 28, 2017, and since then the route has been operated four times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays . I was lucky enough to take the very first flight in business class and on one of the first flights back from Honolulu in economy class.
During a brief press conference before the inaugural flight, the CEO of the company mentioned that before any further expansion in the United States, the goal is to increase the frequency to daily.
And, that will become reality starting from August 16, 2018.
From then on, the Osaka Kansai – Honolulu route will operate daily with the following schedule (departure and arrival times will remain the same as they are now):
- D71 from Osaka KIX to Honolulu: depart at 11:25PM, arrive at 12:30PM
- D72 from Honolulu to Osaka KIX: depart at 4:00PM, arrive at 8:25PM the next day
Just like now, the flights will originate and terminate in Kuala Lumpur. The segments between Kuala Lumpur and Osaka will be operated daily with the same timings as the four weekly flights operate now:
- D71 from Kuala Lumpur to Osaka KIX: depart at 2:00PM, arrive at 9:25PM
- D72 from Osaka KIX to Kuala Lumpur: depart at 10:00PM, arrive at 4:00AM the next day
With that, not only will the route to Honolulu become daily, but also the route between Osaka and Kuala Lumpur will go from 11 frequencies a week to double daily.
Overall, this is a very welcome development in AirAsia X’s presence in Japan, and hopefully is a stepping stone to more future expansion from Kuala Lumpur via Osaka Kansai to the United States.
