Hawaiian Airways is pulling again flights to Asia and reducing its longest home U.S. route. As a substitute, the airline will fly extra frequencies to Australia, Tahiti — and, above all else, between Honolulu and the U.S. West Coast.
Hawaiian introduced the community shakeup late Tuesday, revealing plans to droop its nonstop service between Honolulu’s Daniel Ok. Inouye Worldwide Airport (HNL) and three locations:
- Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS), efficient Nov. 19
- Incheon Worldwide Airport (ICN) in Seoul, South Korea, efficient Nov. 21
- Fukuoka Airport (FUK) in Fukuoka, Japan, efficient Nov. 19
As a substitute, Hawaiian will improve the variety of weekly flights it operates on a handful of home and worldwide routes through the peak Hawaii journey months.
Why is Hawaiian reducing flights?
Tuesday’s route cuts are merely economics, Hawaiian mentioned: these three flights had underperformed expectations, the provider defined in a assertion asserting the information — particularly pointing to lagging journey demand from Asia to Hawaii ever because the COVID-19 pandemic.
Guests to the Aloha State from Japan had been down 54% in 2024 versus 2019, in response to information from the Hawaii Tourism Authority — due partially to weak point within the yen.
South Korea guests to Hawaii had been down by almost a 3rd in contrast with 2019.
“It is all the time a troublesome resolution to droop a route, particularly in cities like Seoul, which we have now loved serving for over 14 years,” Hawaiian CEO Joe Sprague mentioned Tuesday, whereas noting the provider does “stay dedicated” to its remaining Japan providers from Honolulu.
Hawaiian nonetheless flies from its HNL hub to Tokyo through Haneda Airport (HND), in addition to to Osaka’s Kansai Worldwide Airport (KIX).
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As for Boston, Hawaiian had stiff competitors from Delta Air Traces on the longest home U.S. route from HNL to BOS.
Extra flights to the South Pacific and the U.S. West Coast
Whereas Hawaiian could also be shrinking its route map, the provider is including extra flights to a handful of cities through the Hawaii journey months.
Between mid-December and the tip of January, the airline will make its HNL flights to Sydney Airport (SYD) a each day fixture. It will additionally add a second weekly flight to Faaa Worldwide Airport (PPT) in Papeete, Tahiti starting in March.
Vacationers may also count on to see Hawaiian’s planes flying much more steadily between HNL and the U.S. West Coast: The provider will add a fifth each day flight to Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) through the peak vacation rush. And, it is going to stack on a fourth each day wintertime flight from Honolulu to Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport (SEA), the house base of its new sister airline, Alaska Airways.
Publish-merger shakeup
The additional SEA and LAX flights are half of a bigger community shakeup at Hawaiian after being acquired final yr by Alaska Air Group — together with an effort to attach extra Hawaiian flights with Alaska’s West Coast hubs.
This winter (between October and March) Hawaiian’s whole departures on the HNL-SEA route had already been set to rise some 226% versus a yr in the past, in response to information from aviation analytics agency Cirium.
Different adjustments are within the works, too.
As TPG reported, Hawaiian’s brand-new Boeing 787 Dreamliners will quickly be repainted with Alaska Airways livery. These planes will quickly cease flying to and from Hawaii, and can as a substitute be deployed on Alaska’s new long-haul worldwide flights out of SEA.
Alaska has mentioned Hawaiian’s older Airbus A330s — which might be its fundamental long-haul plane, going ahead — will get cabin facelifts within the coming years, together with a brand new business-class and premium financial system product.
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