China's Hainan Airlines has received written approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin direct service from Beijing to Hawai'i, although the first flight will likely be delayed until early next year.

State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert said the first nonstop scheduled service from China to Hawai'i could provide a big boost for the long-anticipated increase in visitors from there.
Wienert said it could begin around the first of next year while the state and the airline earlier had hoped for a start date before the end of this year.
"It's very good for us," Wienert said Friday at a meeting of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority. With Hawai'i tourism struggling out of a slump, officials are looking to China as a muchneeded new market.
Hainan Airlines, China's largest nonstate-owned airline, is planning one flight a week. The carrier plans eventually to increase the frequency of the Beijing-Honolulu service to
three flights a week as demand builds.

The new service is primarily targeted at Chinese tourists, a growing market even during the present economic downturn. In the early 1990s, Hawai'i welcomed about 10,000 visitors a year from China. That jumped to almost 30,000 by 1998 and closed in on 60,000 last year, according to state statistics.

Hawai'i is a popular destination for visitors from Asia, and a new memorandum of understanding between the United States and China has eased restrictions on leisure travel for Chinese nationals coming to the United States.

Hainan will use an Airbus A340-600 on the new route, with 288 seats in three classes. The airline now operates nonstop between Beijing and Seattle four times a week, a service that began in June 2008.

Since the opening of its first international route in 2001, Hainan has expanded its route network to Europe and Russia.

Founded in 1993, Hainan Airlines carries more than 14 million passengers annually and flies to more than 60 domestic and international cities, including the capitals of every Chinese province. Hainan Airlines' international flight destinations include Budapest, Hungary; Brussels; and St. Petersburg, Russia. It recently added services to Berlin; Taipei, Taiwan; Luanda, Angola; Moscow; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Seattle.