Hawaiian Airlines said Thursday that it is creating a second Hawaii hub in Kahului to improve connections between Maui and the West Coast as well as the other Neighbor Islands.

The Honolulu-based airline also plans to increase its schedule to Maui, Kauai and the Big Island by an additional 23 to 25 flights in the next several weeks, with more than half of those flights serving the new Maui hub in Kahului, and a third of the flights providing additional direct service between Maui and Kauai and the Big Island.

Hawaiian, a subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings Inc., also will restart nonstop flights between Maui and Los Angeles in June, and is changing the scheduled arrival of its twice-weekly Maui-Las Vegas flights to accommodate Neighbor Island flight connections, the airline said. Hawaiian also flies from Maui to Seattle, Las Vegas, and Oakland and San Jose in California's Bay Area.

Hawaiian plans to use three newly acquired Boeing 717-200 aircraft on the new flight schedule, the airline said.

"This investment in our core business here in Hawaii will increase service between Maui and other Neighbor Islands by 25 percent, and answer a need identified by our kamaaina travelers," President and CEO Mark Dunkerley said in a statement.