Aloha Airlines Inaugurates Nonstop Kona Service from Oakland International Airport.

Business/Travel Editors

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 2001

Aloha Airlines today launched new nonstop service to Kona from Oakland International Airport. Aloha will serve the Oakland-Kona market with four flights per week.

"A year ago, Aloha Airlines chose Oakland International as its gateway in the San Francisco Bay Area when they launched daily nonstop service to Honolulu and Maui," said Steve Grossman, director of aviation for the Port of Oakland, the owner/operator of Oakland International Airport. "Travelers have enjoyed the "Aloha" spirit so much that Aloha has expanded its service from Oakland with nightly nonstop service to Las Vegas this past February and today with the new nonstop Kona service."

Director of Aviation Steve Grossman, Aloha Airlines President and CEO Glenn Zander, and Executive Director of the Big Island Visitor's Bureau George Applegate led today's inaugural ceremonies. Hawaiian dancers and music, a traditional Hawaiian blessing and untying of a maile lei, and a water arch courtesy of the airport firefighters of the Oakland Fire Department added to the inaugural festivities.

Aloha will use Boeing 737-700 aircraft, configured to two levels of service with 12 seats in First Class and 112 in Economy Class. The flights will operate from Gate 11 in Terminal One.

The following is Aloha's schedule between Oakland International Airport (OAK) and Kona (KOA):

Route         Flight No.      Departure Time       Arrival Time
-----         ----------      --------------       ------------
OAK to KOA    477               8:40 a.m.           11:05 a.m. (Fr-Mo)
KOA to OAK    478               12:30 p.m.           8:31 p.m. (Th-Su)

For more information or to make reservations, call Aloha Airlines at 1-800-367-5250, visit the airlines web site at www.alohaairlines.com or call your travel professional.

Oakland International Airport served more than 10.6 million passengers and handled more than 700,000 metric tons of air cargo in 2000. Oakland International has more than 185 flights per day on 11 domestic and international carriers. New service includes daily nonstop flights to Honolulu and Maui, and four nonstop flights a week to Kona on Aloha Airlines and two daily nonstop flights to the New York area on Continental Airlines and JetBlue Airways. The airport is a revenue division of the Port of Oakland, an independent department of the city of Oakland.

Oakland International Airport is just beginning its $1.8 billion expansion program known as the Airport Development Program (ADP). The ADP is an umbrella program for 18 expansion and improvement projects that will enable the airport to serve 13.8 million passengers and handle one million metric tons of air cargo. Program highlights include the addition of 12 passenger gates, a six-lane parkway into the airport from I-880, a two-level roadway, a consolidated terminal building, and a multi-level parking facility. The ADP is expected to take five to seven years to complete.

Oakland International consistently has the best on-time record of the three Bay Area airports, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation. It is the only Bay Area airport with a dedicated shuttle that meets every Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system train at the nearby Coliseum station. On-airport parking rates are as low as $10 per day in the economy lot. Visit the airport's Web site at www.oaklandairport.com for more information.