Hawaiian Airlines CEO says airline is optimistic about 2021 travel, three new routes

After a bruising year for the airline industry, Hawaiian Airlines CEO Peter Ingram said he believes it’s only up from here. Airlines spent much of 2020 cutting routes and reducing flights due to the decline in travel demand from the coronavirus pandemic, but companies including Delta and United have announced some new additions in recent months. Hawaiian Airlines is joining the fray with new nonstop flights from Honolulu to Austin, Texas; Orlando, Florida, and Ontario, California, to be added in the spring. The Honolulu-based company anticipates a rebound in air travel in the new year and seeks to capitalize on population trends in the Southern states. “The reason it’s the time to announce three new routes is because … we’re very optimistic about 2021,” he said. “These are places we’ve been looking at for a long time. They have good strong demand for Hawaii.” Austin has established itself among the top tech scenes in the country, rivaling the traditional tech ecosystem that the San Francisco Bay Area is renowned for. The Texas capital city has drawn interest from multiple technology companies that have either opened up factories there or announced plans to relocate their headquarters from California.<br/>