Posted on: Friday, March 30, 2001

NWA cuts Hawai'i flights

By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer

Northwest Airlines plans to end its daily redeye flights from Honolulu to Los Angeles and San Francisco, but will expand its daily Minneapolis-to-Honolulu service.

Northwest Flight 932 to Los Angeles International Airport, which leaves at 11 p.m., will cease on April 23, while Flight 928 to San Francisco, which leaves at 9:30 p.m., will cease on May 1.

Flights 920 and 921, to and from Minneapolis, will become year-round flights. They are currently only offered four months per year during the winter season.

Northwest announced the Minneapolis flights last fall, and began them from mid-December through April, the high-demand winter season.

Nani Mahoe, Northwest's director of Hawai'i sales, said the moves are part of a not-yet-announced corporate change for the Eagan, Minn.-based airline.

"There's a lot of things going on system-wide," Mahoe said. "The loss of those two flights is not because we're unhappy with Hawai'i, but because our overall strategy is changing. Those planes will now serve other markets."

Mahoe said she didn't know the reasons for the changes. Northwest executives at corporate headquarters could not be reached for comment today.

Northwest is one of Hawai'is largest carriers, with about seven flights a day to Hawai'i, five from the Mainland and two from Japan.