Zoom to begin flights to Hawai

[AA 1818]

The Canadian direct sale carrier Zoom Airlines says it will launch Hawaii service on Dec. 17.

Zoom enters a market already served by Air Canada and Harmony Airways with another discounter, WestJet, also planning to launch Hawaii service in December.

What's different about Ottawa-based Zoom is that all of these other carriers fly to Hawaii from Vancouver. Zoom will fly to Honolulu from Toronto, Canada's largest city.

"Since launching in 2002, Zoom Airlines' passenger rate has grown 650 percent," CEO Kris Dolinki said. "Thanks to our successful trans-Atlantic and Caribbean programs, Zoom is pleased to be able to serve another holiday market."

The Conference Board of Canada says 19 percent of Canadians, or 6.8 million people, plan to travel outside of Canada this winter.

"Canada is a very important market to Hawaiian tourism -- it is our fourth largest -- but the majority of our visitors originate from the United States or Vancouver," said Hawaii Tourism Authority Executive Director Frank Haas. "The introduction of Zoom Airlines' affordable non-stop service will make the beauty and culture of the Hawaiian Islands more accessible to Central Canadians."

http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2005/09/26/daily20.html?from_rss=1

Well, more Canadian carriers to Hawaii! This is great news for Canadians and not so good for AirCanada...

[yyz-yvr]

Yes, I've known about this for a while now. But it is much better for those travelling from Toronto over Westjet's new service because it is direct. I was playing around and if I remember correctly, it was also nearly $200 cheaper on Zoom. I've never flown Zoom but they seem to be doing well, and are planing to expand soon. Good luck to them....

[canair67]

Terriffic. Another option to avoid AC with. All the more power to them!

[a78jumper]

AC inherited the YYZ-HNL route from CP, and then abandoned it a couple of years ago presumably because it was not making any $$$. Both flew 763s on it. A lot of pax also used to connect onwards to Aussie and NZ as well. I believe Go Travel Direct has got their hands on this one; they are a niche agency originally scheduled to set up flights between YOW and sun destinations, using First Air amongst other carriers initially.

[ptbodale]

AC dropped the YYZ-HNL-YYZ route when they discontinued MEL (another stupid move!). The yield on YYZ-HNL-YYZ was low because of the number of rebate tickets. When YYZ-HNL-YYZ was dropped AC added another daily YVR-HNL-YVR. Also AC operates YYZ-VR and return almost hourly.


And yes canair67 we know you hate Air Canada.

[Crazy764]

AC inherited the YYZ-HNL route from CP, and then abandoned it a couple of years ago presumably because it was not making any $$$. Both flew 763s on it. A lot of pax also used to connect onwards to Aussie and NZ as well. I believe Go Travel Direct has got their hands on this one; they are a niche agency originally scheduled to set up flights between YOW and sun destinations, using First Air amongst other carriers initially.

Indeed, GTD/Zoom are now offering non-stop YOW-SXM flights this winter!