Alaska Air to serve Lihue on Kauai from San Jose and Oakland

Alaska Airlines will inaugurate service between San Jose in California and Lihue on the Hawaiian island of Kauai on March 27, 2011, and between Oakland and Lihue beginning on March 28, 2011.

Fares for the new Alaska Airlines routes start at $179 each way for tickets purchased by July 9, 2010, for travel through May 17, 2011.

The new flights will complement the airline’s existing Hawaii service from San Jose and Oakland to Kahului, Maui, and Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii, and new flights between Calfornia’s state capital Sacramento and Kahului, which started in March of this year.

“The Hawaiian Islands are among the most popular leisure destinations that Alaska Airlines serves,” says Joe Sprague, Alaska’s vice president of marketing. “This winter we will have more than 100 flights a week to the four major islands from the U.S. West Coast. These new flights to the beautiful ‘Garden Isle’ of Kauai will be a great addition to Alaska’s Hawaii service for our Bay Area customers.”

Alaska Airlines has painted a numberof its aircraft in special color schemes, such as this Disney-themed 'Make a Wish' Boeing 737

Alaska Airlines’ San Jose-Lihue flights will operate three times weekly, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The airline’s Oakland-Lihue Flight will operate four times weekly, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The schedule calls for Alaska Airlines’ San Jose-Lihue flight to leave San Jose’s Norman Y. Mineta International Airport (SJC) at 7:20 p.m. and reach Lihue Airport (LIH) at 9:59 p.m. The return flight is timed to depart LIH at 9:20 a.m. and land at SJC at 5:40 p.m. The schedule times for the service between Metropolitan Oakland International Airport (OAK) and Lihue is the same as for the San Jose-Lihue service in both directions but on different days. All times are based on local time zones.

Flights are available for booking at alaskaair.com or by calling 1-800-ALASKAAIR (1-800-252-7522 or TTY/TDD line 1-800-392-0228).

The airline will operate the new Hawaii flights with Boeing 737-800s accommodating 16 passengers in first class and 141 in the main cabin. Inflight service includes meals for purchase in the main cabin, complimentary meal service in First Class and Alaska Airlines’ digEplayer, a personal entertainment system offering a variety of movies, television shows, music and other features.

Alaska Airlines Vacations offers a full line of vacation packages for travel to Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii. Packages include air transportation, hotel accommodations, ground transportation and tours. For more information about Alaska Airlines Vacations, visit alaskaair.com/vacations.