The shortest route to HNL
There are many ways of flying from Brussels to Honolulu and the travel time is in excess of twenty hours in all cases. You might say that it does not matter since no sane person would want to do a trip like that in one stretch but in case you do, the best option is Continental Airlines from Brussels to Newark (EWR) and then again Continental Airlines Newark to Honolulu (HNL) non-stop. CO is the only airline offering a non-stop connection from the US East Coast to HNL. It is a flight of 10 hours and 30 minutes though very often 10 to 15 minutes are shaved from the schedule time. The only uncertain aspect of such a routing is the 90 minute transfer time in Newark. Although clearing immigration, picking up your bag, rechecking it and going through security can be done under an hour, leaving you 30 minutes to find your gate, if the flight from Brussels is late, things can get tight and you may end up waving good-by to the departing 767… However, we have done this route twice now and made the connection each time so may be there is less to worry about than I imagined. Continental knows whet they are doing when they allow this connection.
Five years ago we flew to Honolulu with Delta just a few days after Hurricane Katrina destroyed most of New Orleans. We had to change planes in Atlanta and the fuel situation was so bad there that we had to land in Dallas to fuel the 767 for the long leg to HNL. In early September this year it was Hurricane Earl inching up the East Coast that was threatening to disrupt air traffic in the New York area and hence make a joke of our 90 minute connection time (proving that I was not worrying over nothing). As it happened, Earl was slower than forecast and it arrived a day after us even then staying well clear of the coast, sparing New York and the various connections.
Boarding in Brussels
The 767-400 was docked at terminal B in Zaventem and when the pre-boarding announcement came, there was a mad rush towards the gate as if each and every passenger on that place was travelling in first class, had multiple disabilities, was accompanied by five kids or all three… The gate agents tried to organize a boarding-by-rows process but they were facing a mission impossible. For one, the announcements could barely be heard so no one was really sure which rows were being called so they all pushed forward, blocking the way of those who knew that they had been called… There were several American families who remained seated as instructed, patiently waiting their number to come up while they watched the multilingual, undisciplined crowd milling about, making a joke of the whole boarding process.
After a while one of the agents decided that at the rate people were getting through (nine out of ten presenting themselves to board had to be sent to the side because they were the wrong row), the plane would never take off on time, so he opened a new lane and just allowed through anyone with the guts to exit the crowd and change to the new lane. Of course this resulted in blocked aisles in the aircraft (the exact thing boarding by rows is supposed to prevent) but that was something for the cabin crew to worry about.
Clearly, a poor PA system, bad organization and undisciplined people all conspired to make the start of this trip a less than impressive.
Crossing the Atlantic
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean has become one of the most routine flying tasks that usually holds few surprises. That is as it should be however on this particular flight we encountered something that might be considered as a forerunner of things to come.
About halfway through there was increasing turbulence and finally the captain announced that there was a major storm in our path and we would need to circumnavigate it as the plane could not fly above it. We were at Flight Level 320…
The plane promptly started a series of lateral maneuvers while those sitting on the left hand side were treated to the sight of majestic clouds reaching higher than we were flying… The mega storms of the future?
The long reach of flow management
Newark can get pretty busy and we got a nice demonstration of how a continent-wide, integrated air traffic control system can reach out to rearrange flights before they reach a choke point with less options to maneuver.
Passing between Bangor and Montreal, we flew a series of turns, adding what might be seen as two classic doglegs to the track flown. Once reestablished on the direct course to EWR, the approach was an almost straight-in with the sight of the New York skyline pampering once again those on the left side of the plane.
But the doglegs had served their purpose and no fuel inefficient low level maneuvering close in to the airport was required.
The 90 minute connection time
Newark is one of the hubs used by Continental and its international as well as most of its domestic flights arrive at Terminal C. So, getting from an international arrival like the Brussels flight to a domestic departure like that to Honolulu is an easy exercise if one discounts the hurdle of passing immigration, picking up the baggage, passing customs and rechecking the bags after which only a long security line remains as the final obstacle keeping you from the bliss of finding the proper gate assigned to the Honolulu flight.
As it happened, immigration was cleared in record time in spite of there being a very long line… The trick was simple, they kept opening new clearing lanes as the line grew and the end result was a swift, constant flow. Rechecking the bags was no problem at all and the security line was also moving at a good clip… Terminal C has three check points and this divides the crowd as you are directed to the check point with the lowest load at the moment. All gates are reachable from each of the check points so there is a lot of flexibility built in.
We were at the gate with 30 minutes to spare.
Off to HNL finally
Boarding of the HNL flight, another 767-400, was done by rows (just like in Brussels) but boy was the process different! Clear instructions via the PA system and people just staying where they were until their row number was called. There was no crowd milling around the gate and there was no blockage of the aircraft aisles. A bit of discipline applied freely by everyone did the trick.
As usual at EWR, the taxi time was almost 30 minutes and the heavy 767 was moving like a snail until we arrived on the runway. We used up most of the runway to take off and once airborne, the moist air treated those who cared to watch to a spectacular show of water vapor condensing out in two vortices over the wings.
One would think that such a long flight in the US is sent onto the great circle track right away but that was not the case. We did a few turns left and right before finally setting the nose towards Honolulu. This track would take us across the US, reaching the Pacific Ocean over San Francisco.
As the coastline sunk behind the tail, only the blue of the endless ocean remained. Looking around, it was easy to believe that the Hawai’i-an islands are the most remote place on earth.
A steep descent at the other end
We flew at Flight Level 340 and stayed there until the island of O’Ahu was almost under the nose. Then a steep descent followed with everything the wings had to offer deployed to speed us downwards. Finally, with a graceful turn to the right, we lined up with the runway and landed with one wing hanging into the brisk trade winds blowing over the island’s central mountain range.
Car license plates in Hawai’i have a rainbow painted on them, and this is no accident. There is almost always a rainbow over the islands no doubt reminding those who might forget that you are arriving in paradise.
Total travel time: 20 hours and 15 minutes but who cares? In another 20 minutes we will be walking under that rainbow.
