Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

[joshuatree]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

As long as go! is in Hawaii and running in the red with $39 fares, neither HA nor AQ is going to do much reaching out to local travellers, unfortunately. All they will try to do is match go! and hope it leaves town soon.

But did HA and AQ reach out to the locals before go! came along? I believe they just simply passed along any additional costs to the flying public instead of looking at ways to cut costs.

Every airline arrives early flying westbound to Hawaii due to tailwinds!

I thought it was the other way around, flying westbound means flying into the winds?

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

Now if you want to fly via jet to Maui from Hilo you have to fly into Oahu first, stay for an hour then fly to Maui making business travel between Hilo and Maui a slow process.

[mel]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

Back in the 1980s Hawaiian Airlines offered interisland flight tours on their Dash 7 turboprops.

[helen]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

I'm just a bit upset at Hawaiian that they could expand their overseas routes yet don't even have the courtesy to expand a direct Hilo to Maui route.

They don't do the grand tour flights anymore? Like from Oahu, to Maui and then to either Hilo or Kona?

[LikaNui]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

"statistics can be skewed to anyone's advantage..."

Heh. There's a keeper of a quote.

In all the times I've flown from SEA to OGG, most of the time the flight leaves SEA on time and actually gets to OGG 20 minutes or so early, which kinda tells me that HA, at least, may pad its arrival times just a skosh to account for possible delays at the gate!

Now see, that's silly. Every airline arrives early flying westbound to Hawaii due to tailwinds!
I have friends who always buy the yearly pass on ATA, and for the several years they've been coming over at least once a month, every single flight has arrived early. [/yawn]
Why is HA being singled out as "padding its arrival times"?
Sheesh.

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

Im one of those that find that somewhat a stretch. I guess "technically" you could say HA has the best "on time" performance, but really how can you compare sun drenched HNL with service "just" to/from about 9 or 10 west coast cities with airlines such as UA, US, AA, NW, CO etc. serving rain soaked and wintery iced hubs throughout the nation, even during high summer, many of those airports are choked to capacity with , while HNL flights ease in and out due to minimal traffic here. Not really a fair comparison in my opinion. Even interisland, I've rarely had an Interisland flight leave late save for the occasional storm (as in Kona in December, but that was due to a late inbound from HNL).

Many consumers don't try to dig deeper into the stats, Kaukura. That's how lots of companies get away with being "less than 100% truthful" about their claims. One of my biostat profs put it this way: "statistics can be skewed to anyone's advantage..." One thing I do know about HA transpac flight schedules, though. In all the times I've flown from SEA to OGG, most of the time the flight leaves SEA on time and actually gets to OGG 20 minutes or so early, which kinda tells me that HA, at least, may pad its arrival times just a skosh to account for possible delays at the gate!

[Kaukura]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

Hawaiian also has this cachet with Mainland and foreign travellers of being a premium carrier (based on their consistently best on time of all major carrier stats for the last 4 years) and they are trying to exploit that, too.

Im one of those that find that somewhat a stretch. I guess "technically" you could say HA has the best "on time" performance, but really how can you compare sun drenched HNL with service "just" to/from about 9 or 10 west coast cities with airlines such as UA, US, AA, NW, CO etc. serving rain soaked and wintery iced hubs throughout the nation, even during high summer, many of those airports are choked to capacity with , while HNL flights ease in and out due to minimal traffic here. Not really a fair comparison in my opinion. Even interisland, I've rarely had an Interisland flight leave late save for the occasional storm (as in Kona in December, but that was due to a late inbound from HNL).

[Miulang]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

I'm just a bit upset at Hawaiian that they could expand their overseas routes yet don't even have the courtesy to expand a direct Hilo to Maui route. I mean they are Hawaii's airline right? Seems their focus is more on getting people in and out of Hawaii rather than around it.

With all that said I can't see any reason why Mesa cannot operate here since Hawaiian seems more interested in operating elsewhere.

Unfortunately, they gotta go where they can make money, and for at least the next several years, while we weather tough economic times in this country (which means fewer vacations for many Americans), the foreign travel market will be booming because the dollar has been devalued so badly. Hawaiian also has this cachet with Mainland and foreign travellers of being a premium carrier (based on their consistently best on time of all major carrier stats for the last 4 years) and they are trying to exploit that, too.

As long as go! is in Hawaii and running in the red with $39 fares, neither HA nor AQ is going to do much reaching out to local travellers, unfortunately. All they will try to do is match go! and hope it leaves town soon.

Joshua and I figured out once that if all the air carriers charged around $60-75/OW for interisland flights, they'd at least break even and all three could survive. But with the $39 fares, no one is making any money in Hawaii.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

I'm just a bit upset at Hawaiian that they could expand their overseas routes yet don't even have the courtesy to expand a direct Hilo to Maui route. I mean they are Hawaii's airline right? Seems their focus is more on getting people in and out of Hawaii rather than around it.

With all that said I can't see any reason why Mesa cannot operate here since Hawaiian seems more interested in operating elsewhere.

[pzarquon]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

Hawaiian Airlines Signs Purchase Agreement with Airbus for Delivery of 12 New Wide-Body Aircraft
Agreement Paves the Way for Long-Range Fleet and Route Expansion

HONOLULU – Having reached key labor agreements with its pilot and flight attendant unions on the introduction of new aircraft, Hawaiian Airlines today announced that it has signed a definitive purchase agreement with Airbus to acquire 12 new long-range wide-body aircraft and secure purchase rights for an additional 12 aircraft.

The transaction, which follows a Memorandum of Understanding announced in November 2007, is the first step in a phased fleet plan designed to replace Hawaiian’s current wide-body fleet of 18 aircraft, expand its long-range fleet, and enable it to open new routes to more distant markets on a nonstop basis from Hawaii.

Under the signed Purchase Agreement, Hawaiian is acquiring six wide-body A330-200 aircraft and six A350XWB-800 (Extra Wide-Body) aircraft, and purchase rights for an additional six A330-200s and six A350XWB-800s. The agreement has a total list-price value of approximately $4.4 billion if all of the purchase rights are exercised.

With Hawaiian’s long-term fleet direction now established, President and CEO Mark Dunkerley said the company will move to secure additional aircraft in the leasing market for entry into service between 2009 and 2012.

[joshuatree]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

So I was lucky enough to be out in Phoenix this past week and while I was enjoying my peanuts and looking at the map of the US where Southwest serves, I had a random thought. Sky Harbor Airport is pretty huge. Can't Hawaiian transfer their 717s up here and create a secondary focus hub? Say for instance, Phoenix? So you reach out to Dallas, Houston, Denver, Salt Lake City, Chicago by doing 717 hops between these cities and Phoenix? Then increase your 767 frequency to Phoenix and voila, more market penetration? The inter island market is better off with turboprops and HA won't have to lose money by canceling the leases on the 717s?

[Random]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

Too bad they can't get one of those Airbuses for the Sugar Cane Express.

[joshuatree]

Re: Hawaiian Airlines Signs With Airbus

Anyone who's interested in more detail on HA's decision to choose Airbus can check out this podcast with Dunkerley. Seems the deal breaker with Boeing was the delivery time for a 787 and the lack of an interim solution, used 767s are hard to come by and the bulk of HA's fleet of 767s will either hit end of useful life or end of lease between 2009-2014. Choice of Rolls Royce for engines was default on 350 (only engine available) but on the 330, it's the most popular choice so resale value should be better when the time comes. Markets HA is aiming to expand into are the Asian markets and nonstop East Coast flights. Core market will still be HI-West Coast. Europe will be based on demand, if demand exists, they are willing to go there. The 717s will be around for another 8-9 years, that's when the lease is up. However, they will start shopping for a replacement in the next few years. They will most likely look for a plane in the 100 pax capacity.

Personally, I like to see them take a look at the new ATR-72-600s due out in 2010.

[Random]

This Just In...

HA is offering Sugar Cane Express package deals with a charter direct flight to and from NOLA, ranging from $3300 to $5500 (including air, hotel, tickets, and buses).

http://www.khnl.com/global/story.asp?s=7452294
http://www.khon2.com/news/local/12141006.html

[Random]

Re: Hawaii's Interisland Air War - Chapter 4

As for A350, I'm holding my final opinion until we know more about it. Originally they were only going do minor changes to the A330 and re-name it A350. When that was obviously insufficient to compete with the 787, Airbus did a total re-design. Which means the A350 won't be available until middle of the next decade.

Aww. Too bad, so sad.



Guess devoted Warriors fan won't enjoy taking an Airbus shuttle to and from NOLA for the Sugar Bowl.