May 2--OAKLAND -- Soon after Hawaiian Airlines kicked off service between here and Honolulu on Thursday, company officials said they are mulling the possibility of new service to Maui.

The inaugural flight by Hawaiian Airlines from Oakland to Honolulu carried about 220 passengers on a jetliner with a capacity of 260. That was a decent start, said Mark Dunkerley, president and chief executive of Hawaiian Holdings Inc., the Honolulu-based company that owns the airline.

"For an inaugural flight, that is promising," Dunkerley said.

The flight also represented a comeback of sorts for Oakland International Airport. In recent weeks, the bankruptcy and shutdown of ATA and Aloha Airlines jolted service at the airport, displaced hundreds of travelers and severed the direct air travel link between Oakland and Hawaii.

"The East Bay is a vibrant market, and providing this service is something we wanted to do," Dunkerley said. "But other airlines were already in the market."

Honolulu-based Hawaiian is already considering the possibility of expanding the number of islands it serves out of Oakland.

"We would be very interested in Maui service," Dunkerley said.

But the potential for new flights to Maui is only in the preliminary stages, said John "Keoni" Wagner, a Hawaiian Airlines vice president.