Strategic/Air Australia will fly from Melbourne, Brisbane to USA

Melbourne and Brisbane travellers heading for the US will have more flight options from this December, as Strategic Airlines -- soon to be rebranded Air Australia -- commences flights to Honolulu in Hawai'i from both airports.

The airline will use Airbus A330-200 planes on the routes, with five rows of business class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration at the front.

Strategic/Air Australia's seats aren't as comfortable as fully flat beds or lie-flat seats on more established trans-Pacific operations like Qantas, Virgin Australia, United and Delta. And with only two flights from each city a week, the schedule won't be attractive for many time-crunched business travellers.

But with numerous direct flight options from Honolulu to cities in the US and Canada -- and a useful 0725 arrival time into Honolulu's airport for all flights -- it's one worth keeping in mind.

Here's that schedule in full.

Brisbane flight VC001 will depart at 1800 on Wednesdays and Fridays, crossing the International Date Line and arriving in Honolulu at 0725 the same day.

Return flights to Brisbane (VC002) leave Honolulu at 1015 on Thursdays and Saturdays, arriving in Brisbane at 1600 a day later.

From Melbourne, flight VC011 will leave at 1800 on Thursdays and Saturdays, and will arrive in Honolulu at 0725 the same day.

From Honolulu, VC012 will leave for Melbourne at 0900 on Wednesdays and Fridays, arriving a day later at 1725.

The airline will also start flying four times daily on the main trunk route between Brisbane and Melbourne by December.

Reservations open this Monday, but the operations are still subject to government approvals.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.