U.S. DOT rejects Hawaiian Airlines Kona-Haneda request

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Thursday gave preliminary approval to Delta Airlines for a Seattle to Tokyo flight. Seattle is the largest West Coast city without a direct flight into the Haneda airport. In selecting Delta, the DOT rejected Hawaiian Airlines’ request to add service from Kona to Haneda, Japan.

“It would be in the public interest to allow Delta to use the opportunity for service from Seattle,” a DOT announcement on Thursday said. “Delta’s proposal would provide the first nonstop service between Haneda and Seattle and provide a number of Western U.S. cities with their first one-stop connecting service to Haneda.”