According to a piece in the July 10,2001 Honolulu Advertiser:

Good News: Delta airlines announced it will begin non-stop service between Salt Lake City and HNL on September 1,2001. The flight will use a 287 pax, Boeing 767-400 aircraft.

Bad News: In the same announcement, Delta said it's cancelling the daily non-stop it's been operating from Atlanta since 1985 and now all Delta flights to/from HNL will now be funneled through SLC, SFO or LAX.

There's a thread on the Delta board about this. I think it's due to a staffing issue. Delta in the Spring changed the ATL-HNL flight from an L1011 (which they are retiring) to a 767-400. However, the 767 is a little bit slower than the L1011, enough that I believe the travel time exceeds the FAA limit for a single flight crew (8hrs maybe)?
Delta didn't want to pay for an extra pilot/copilot, so instead had it do a stop (in LAX), for fuel and change of crew (NO passenger disembarkment). I guess they couldn't come to an agreement, so they decided to make it a permanent stop, only now in SLC.

Jeff

I think that it now leaves CO out of EWR as the only non-stop from the Eastcoast to HNL.

Doesn't ATA operate nonstop JFK-HNL? Or, has this been discontinued?

As most of you probably already know, Delta is reviving their ATL-HNL non-stop. http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ftairports_forum/smile.gif

Aloha