I used to fly this route regularly some years back and there was always a stop in LAX or SFO to change planes and this was with 747's and DC-10's. I'm not sure if the range of the then aircraft would have allowed a non-stop service due to seasonal winds/jetstream considerations, but maybe a one-off/intermittent service . These days the A340-600 can do it non-stop, a Lufthansa example did so several times for a cruise charter last year if I recall. An A380 most likely could, as the 777-200, but the question that has to be asked is who wants to travel non-stop to Hawaii (me!
) from Europe ? I would suspect that the actual number is relatively small, as there are many exotic holiday locations much closer than a 14hr plus slog to the 808 state. Business travel is minimal from Europe to Hawaii, though different from the west-coast where it is more pronounced.
Perhaps ANZ or some such airline might be interested in doing a nonstop to HNL on their way to AKL and bypassing the delights of the TSA in LAX to the more mellow Hawaiian transit facilities. The route would, I imagine, be a polar big circle, down over Canada/Alaska and onto HNL.
SHJ