Hawaii-based Airlines - Hawaiian interested to fly to Haneda, Japan

A month old article but it seems this has not been discussed here.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/05/kralev-us-flights-likely-to-japans-haneda/

I doubt they can win slots.

I'd say if HA is smart enough, they will win. HA has had extensive tourist marketing in Japan without flying there for years. They have also relied on Japanese and other Asian carriers such as KE to feed Asian tourists to HA interisland flights. HA also seems to have done well flying to some non-mega hub airports as long as they can attract the tourist traffic to their main hub at HNL. Finally, Japanese tourists are able to take Hawaii beach and shopping weekend packages flying out of Tokyo by 10 pm on Friday night to arrive in HNL on Sat. morning and then return to Tokyo by early Monday morning. JL has been serving this type of market for years out of NRT. This would be an untapped market for HA to expand into.