KAILUA-KONA — When Tracy and Doug Hudson left Bellingham, Washington, Saturday morning, it was cold and rainy outside their airplane.
At about 12:30 that afternoon, they arrived to warm, sunny weather at the Kona International Airport for the inaugural flight of Alaska Airlines’ new seasonal route between the Pacific Northwest and the Big Island.
“We honestly didn’t know it was the inaugural,” Tracy Hudson said Saturday near the baggage claim.
The flight’s 147 passengers were treated to gift bags, music and lei upon their arrival in celebration of the new route.
Daniel Chun, regional manager of sales and community marketing, said the seasonal flight will fly between Kona and Bellingham every Saturday through April 1.
This is the first time the airline is offering direct flights between Kona and Bellingham, he said. The airline has previously offered Bellingham routes to Honolulu and Maui.
“We find that a lot of our customers really love Kona,” Chun said.
The Hudsons said this is their first time to the Big Island. The couple has come to Hawaii every year but one since they married on Maui eight years ago.
Coincidentally, they were also on the inaugural Alaska Airlines flight to Maui in 2012.
This year, they said, they wanted to “see something different.”
“See the volcanoes, Parker Ranch, go snorkeling,” said Doug Hudson.
The flight, they said, was great. They only wish they were staying longer than a week, added Tracy Hudson.
“It’s paradise of course,” she said.
For other travelers, the new route offers a major convenience factor.
Shayne Simpson, 50, is a martial arts instructor from Bellingham, but sometimes has to travel to Kona for camps with students.
Simpson, along with four of his students, came to Kona for one such camp, saying the inaugural flight was “perfect timing.”
The new route, he said, saves him from traveling all the way to Seattle for a direct flight here.
“It’s made it way, way, way more convenient for me and my students,” he said.
Ross Birch, executive director of the Hawaii Island Visitors Bureau, said the new opportunities to bring visitors to Kona are exciting.
“Every new direct service is great for Kona,” he said.
Chun said the new route is aimed primarily at providing more opportunities for the airline’s customers in the Pacific Northwest.
That region has been a consistently reliable source of tourists, right behind the Bay Area and Los Angeles, Birch said.
And because West Hawaii still has the hotel inventory to accommodate growing tourism numbers, more direct routes allow the the area to consistently be in a good market position.
Birch specifically mentioned Alaska Airlines as a “very creative” partner in expanding opportunities for direct service to Kona. Alaska Airlines, he said, has the most direct flights to Kona of any airline.
Birch added that the bureau is looking forward to new direct services, such as the upcoming American Airlines direct service to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
In addition to serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, that airport is also the largest hub for American Airlines, with 800 daily flights to 200 destinations, according to the American Airlines website.
“That’s a great market for us,” said Birch.
Direct flights will also be great for local businesses, said Nick Craig, director of sales for Ocean Sports.
