Hawaiian Airlines is striking east to Boston with the launch of nonstop flights between the Massachusetts capital and Honolulu on 4 April 2019.

The route, at 4,427nm (8,199km), will be the longest in Hawaiian's network, says the airline. It will operate the service five days a week using Airbus A330s.

Already, about 500 passengers per day travel between Hawaii and Boston – a figure higher than for any other US city that currently lacks nonstop flights to Hawaii, says the airline.

It notes that Boston's educational and medical facilities create demand for travel to and from Hawaii.

The route announcement comes shortly after Hawaiian disclosed plans to end its Honolulu-Beijing flight in October, a move that frees up aircraft to launch new services, the airline's chief executive Peter Ingram has said.

Hawaiian is also acquiring new A321neos, which it is deploying on routes to the US West Coast, likewise freeing up widebodies for new services.

No airline has operated the Boston-Honolulu route over a period stretching back to at least 2005, the earliest year of FlightGlobal schedules data.

Source: Cirium Dashboard