Opinions Wanted--Direct Flights Europe to Hawaii

Maybe not that much from demand for Hawaiians wanting to go to Europe, but certainly from Europeans wanting to visit Hawaii.

Does the flight duration pass the laugh test using the current fleet? What about the need to refuel? The flight also has to make economic sense for the carrier (and the customer). You would need new airplanes that are actually manufactured specifically to make this long haul flight (they have to be very fuel efficient and state-of-the-art, as well as comfortable enough for the anticipated flight duration). According to the Wall Street Journal, this airplane isn't expected to be delivered until 2019 - so I think the 2017 date is not realistic. The flight is simply not technically feasible yet.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hawaiian-airlines-chief-says-hes-open-to-nonstops-to-europe-if-new-jet-is-1474477013

As far as demand, I think the most significant barrier would be the hard cap on the number of hours that passengers in economy class can bare to be pinned in their seats. That's why flights to Hawaii usually (or almost always?) stop in LAX first, both to break up the journey and to pick up more passengers which make the trip more comfortable and economically viable. If the flights were full blown luxury charter/business class where people could lay down and be comfortable and be served delicious meals, that's another matter. Look at where the longest flights currently are (those over 8,000 miles) - usually Emirates flying out of Dubai (new state-of-the-art planes, superior service, nice business class offerings/seat configurations, etc).

There are at least 4 non-stops between Sydney and Los Angeles every day. The distance is 250 statute miles more than Honolulu to London. They use Boeing 747, 777, and 787 aircraft.

I also live in Hawaii and go to Europe every summer for 14 of the last 15 years. I have always flown to Seattle, visited there for a while, and then flown on to someplace in Europe. The 5 1/2 or 6 hours flight from HNL to SEA is enough for this senior citizen any more let alone adding on another 9 or 10 hours to Europe from Seattle. I usually am able to sleep on the SEA to Europe leg unlike the HNL to SEA leg, so that longer flight goes by quicker. The last few years I have upgraded to Economy Extra given me more room to try and stretch out. That does help. I see in debbien323's post that they say HA "..may start having direct service..." Direct service is not
non-stop so if this is accurate, they must be planning on stopping somewhere in the US on the way to Europe.

This article indicates that the idea is, indeed, to fly non-stop.

Thanks for the input so far. We just got back from 3 weeks in the UK & Ireland & if we would have had the option of a non-stop flight we would have taken it. Flying Kona to Edinburgh took almost 22 hours w/2 layovers (had 2 overnight flights). The return flights took an 8.5 hour flight from Dublin to Charlotte & then another 5+ hours to LAX. We spend the night in LA (on us) & then to Kona the following day. We're still recovering after a week home even though we had the economy + seats. By flying non-stop it would have certainly simplified the journey & decreased flying time.

I read recently when I went to HI that UK nationals are the largest group of international tourists (non US) to HI after Japanese and Canadian nationals. Germans, French and Italians are the other largest European contingent of HI visitors.

Let's also not forget that Hawaiian Airlines might use that route to catch travelers from/to the UK to New Zealand, since the distance would be the same as the Asian route, and it would be slightly shorter than the LAX route.

As far as the need for refueling, that is not an issue. Nearly all the Hawaiian Airlines fleet of wide body planes consists of Airbus 330-200. They have some of the longest range of all wide body planes with 7,500 nautical miles (or 13,450 km) . The distance between LHR and HNL is approximately 6,285 nautical miles (or 11,640 km). CDG would be only slightly longer.

I am all for direct flights to & from Europe as we can spend less time traveling to & from our vacation favorite spots.