This weekend United Airlines filed plans to cut service to Hilo International Airport effective January 7, 2023.

United has flown to Hilo from its hub in Los Angeles predominantly year-round since June 2011 with a brief pause during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the airline restarted mainland service to Los Angeles in 2011, it also added a route from its hub in San Francisco, however that  route was short-lived and ended in August 2013. That left Los Angeles as the airport’s only nonstop connection to the mainland.

The Hilo International Airport is connected to Honolulu and Kahului/Maui with inter-island routes operated by a mix of Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Mokulele Airlines, but it will no longer have nonstop service to the mainland.

AP Photo