Originally Posted by
GRALISTAIR
Are continuation flights allowed? So BA doing LHR (or LGW as they specialize in handling holiday traffic) to SEA or SFO or LAX or LAS and continuing (new crew + refuel if necessary but same aircraft) onto HNL could even go on to Fiji. Or would that defeat the whole object? Just do LGW/LHR take Santa's shortcut onto HNL. So by definition Hawaian Airlines could do the same.
I don't know if BA/any European airline would have the necessary rights to operate such a flight, stopping in one US port before continuing to another (HNL), and even if they could, they definitely would not have the right to pick up passengers for carriage only between the US ports, which would make such a service harder to justify (only US carriers can carry passengers on domestic sectors entirely within the United States).
HA would be able to do this, however, and could perhaps make it work - but I think it's unlikely. I could never imagine HA operating non-stop services to Europe. There just wouldn't be the market/demand to sustain such a service. My guess is that most Europeans that find their way to Hawaii like to stop off in the continental United States in either, if not both, directions, taking in Hawaii as part of a longer, multi-centre holiday.