Originally Posted by glg
Only in Tigger's head
At least SEA-NRT has a few other places people can go (BKK, HKG, SIN, TPE, ICN), with SEA-HNL there is only the way-out-of-the-way NRT and KIX to go to. ie, it'd have to survive entirely on O&D. Not gonna happen.
Judging by the number of Hawaiian shirts on SFO-SEA flights, I think it's fair to say UA is already carrying a lot of traffic from Seattle to Hawaii. That said, I've wondered why UA doesn't better leverage overnighting aircraft in SEA to fly to Hawaii - i.e. a 7pm departure and redeye return wouldn't require any incremental lift in the fleet - but I think it boils down to yields.