Summary
- Air Premier will begin Seoul-Honolulu on December 31st
- It will join its existing US routes to Newark and Los Angeles
- Honolulu will again have four airlines from South Korea
South Korea's Air Premia has added its next US route: Seoul to Honolulu. While not available to book at the time of writing, it is now in the schedules. The addition comes three months after it inaugurated Seoul to Newark in May 2023. Like all the carrier's routes, Honolulu will entirely rely on point-to-point demand, which can be tricky for long-haul operators.
Air Premia to Honolulu
As reported by AeroRoutes and in Air Premia's latest schedule upload in both OAG and Cirium, the 4,577-mile (7,365 km) link to Hawaii will begin on December 31st.
Running four weekly using the Boeing 787-9, it is scheduled as follows, with all times local. The flight numbers (5***) suggest a scheduled charter operation rather than a bog-standard scheduled service.
- Seoul to Honolulu: YP5151, 22:30-11:50 (same-day arrival)
- Honolulu to Seoul: YP5152, 14:30-20:30+1
Despite the name, Air Premia is effectively a low-cost long-haul carrier or at least a hybrid. It is not a premium airline. It has five 787-9s, both with 309 seats (56 in premium economy and 253 in economy) and 338 (56 in premium economy and 282 in economy). The latter is the same capacity as some of Norse Atlantic's 787-9s.
The fourth airline on Seoul-Honolulu
Air Premia will join Asiana, Hawaiian Airlines, and Korean Air between Seoul and the Hawaii capital. The market will return to having four carriers for the first time since 2019 when Jin Air operated using the 777-200ER.
In January 2024, and subject to change, there will be 21 weekly departures (42 roundtrip flights), as detailed below. Weekly frequencies will not quite hit the 23 weekly achieved in January 2020.
- Korean Air: daily 747-8
- Asiana: five weekly 777-200ER
- Hawaiian: five weekly A330-200
- Air Premia: four weekly 787-9
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Air Premia's third US route
As of August 22nd, Air Premia plans 14 weekly US flights from Seoul this January. The widebody-only carrier has 6% of all Seoul-US flights that month. It rises to 8% if the US territories of Guam and Saipan are excluded.
- Los Angeles: six weekly
- Newark: four weekly
- Honolulu: four weekly
It is one of three carriers to Los Angeles and, as mentioned earlier, one of four to Honolulu. Only Newark has no head-to-head competition. Data from the US DOT shows that the very long route to New Jersey has not been served by any carrier before, or at least not since 1990. Of course, Asiana and Korean Air fly to JFK.
Where else would you like to see the carrier fly in North America? Let us know by commenting.
Sources of data: AeroRoutes (for the addition; all analysis by me), OAG, Cirium, US DOT, Flightradar24.