Upon further research I also noticed all flights from San Francisco, then later added in Oct. 1950 was deemed meeting CAB regulations/requirerments and obtaining the Certificate, from Los Angeles that all flights flew to the main island Oahu-Honolulu airport. Biggest reason I could see for this was because of the availability of Fuel on the other islands.
It seems that all ships were named to honor the newly added Islands of Hawaii to the timetables of United. Some were christened to honor the Hawaiian people of Stature from where they were on the Islands. It appears that just because the ship was tagged with a Mainliner Hawaiian name it seemed to honor events and people of Hawaii perhaps.
The photo here from is from a timetable of United in 1953. I filled in the airport name that were just black dots. With the exception Honolulu.
As you can see routes were flown out of Honolulu to the other Islands. I have not ran across any United timetables specific to the Hawaiian Islands yet. Nor have I ran across any rhyme or reason why every ship received their name. A few have been accounted for, the rest are just pure speculation on my part at present. What I do know is the names on the ships I listed prior are the correct names, just how and why they received that particular name is a mystery yet.
However the Hilo airport you had in question was indeed flown to from Honolulu, in the Mainliner Stratocruiser in April of 1950, as you will also see below in the list of reports I found from the Honolulu airport records from that time period.
December 19, 1949
United Airlines’ Stratocruiser arrived at Honolulu Airport on initial familiarization flight from San Francisco.
January 14, 1950
United Air Lines’ Stratocruiser was christened Waipahu at a Honolulu Airport ceremony by Mrs. Hans L’Orange,
wife of the manager of Oahu Sugar Company.
January 15, 1950
United Air Lines began Stratocruiser service between San Francisco and Honolulu.
April 15, 1950
United Air Lines’ Stratocruiser flew to Hilo for the Hawaii County Fair. The trip was made in 47 minutes and
35 seconds.
April 29, 1950
United Air Lines’ Stratocruiser flew from Honolulu to Kahului to hold an open house for the people on Maui.
October 1950
United Air Lines inaugurated Los Angeles-Honolulu service with the arrival of its Boeing Stratocruiser
Hawaii with 48 passengers.
October 1950
United Air Lines’ Boeing Stratocruiser was christened Oahu at a colorful ceremony held at Honolulu Airport
before its departure for Los Angeles with 34 passengers. Heretofore, UAL flew only between San Francisco and Honolulu but was recently authorized by the CAB to fly between Los Angeles and Honolulu.
January 1951
United Air Lines celebrated its 10,000th crossing of the Pacific between California and Honolulu. Although UAL
inaugurated its commercial flying service in Honolulu in May 1947, it had more than eight years of trans-Pacific flying experience, including both commercial and military contract operations.
March 1953
United Air Lines inaugurated air tourist flights between Honolulu, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
May 1954
United Air Lines’ newest passenger aircraft, the DC-7, arrived from New York via San Francisco in a
pre-certification flight.
January 1, 1955
United Air Lines inaugurated the first DC-7 passenger service to Hawaii. The new service replaced United’s
Boeing Stratocruiser flights and reduced flight time between California and Hawaii by more than one hour.
When I run across more I will post