By the time Qantas Airlines started the first jet plane service across the Pacific, stopping in Honolulu, in 1959, the vital importance of air travel to the Islands was already well established.
But the arrival of the jet age gave the process the quantum leap necessary to transform Hawai'i into the international tourist mecca it would become. At the same time it fundamentally altered the makeup of travel to, from and around the Islands.
There were still other ways to get to Hawai'i — such as the week-long journey aboard the Matson Navigation luxury liner S.S. Lurline. But jets could carry folks to Hawai'i twice as fast as the old propeller planes could do it.
And fast is how folks wanted to reach the world's most isolated major land mass.
With visitors clamoring for a glimpse of America's newest state and most exotic destination, tourist numbers in Hawai'i nearly doubled the first year commercial jet travel became available.
Jets were the only means of accommodating such a visitor increase. For the first time, average Joes had an affordable way of touching the Hawaiian sands and swaying palms they had previously known only through film, song and television.
United, Northwest, Japan Air and Canadian Pacific followed Qantas' lead. Meanwhile, in 1963, the Lurline ceased to be an alternative means of travel altogether.
At the same time the jet aircraft was transforming Hawai'i's visitor industry, it was also making rapid military expansion possible in the state.
At the end of the decade, both Aloha and Hawaiian airlines were flying jets interisland. When Pan American Airways introduced Boeing's 747 jumbo jet to Hawai'i in 1970, commercial aviation and jets had become the primary method of travel to and around the Islands.
By the 21st century, commercial flight had become the predominate means of visiting Hawai'i for millions of travelers. For residents, there was practically no alternative in getting around the Islands.
And with everything that needed to reach Hawai'i in a hurry — be it agricultural products, military supplies or eager tourists — coming in via air transport, the state's dependence on jet travel had become complete and will remain so for a long time to come.
