Hawaiian Airlines’ CEO Mark Dunkerley dropped some shocking news yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg. In short, Hawaiian considering London flights and A380s!
Ok, so flights to London aren’t really a shocker. They’ve been on Hawaiian’s radar for some time now. Unfortunately, Hawaiian’s current fleet of A330-200’s don’t have the legs to fly the route non-stop. In the past, they’ve considered operating the route in conjunction with their New York JFK route as a HNL-JFK-LHF-JFK-HNL. I’m guessing the logistics just didn’t work out for that route, and instead the airline opted to order the new A350-800 to tackle this route. The A350-800s would have been able to handle this route comfortably with a range of 8,200 miles while seating 280 passengers in a 3-class configuration. HNL-LHR is just over 7,200 miles.
Unfortunately, the larger -900 variant of the A350 cannibalized sales of the -800 variant. Further, Airbus’ launch of the A330neo continued to eat into the -800 sales. With few takers, Airbus cancelled the -800, forcing Hawaiian to choose between the -900 and the A330neo. Of course, they chose the smaller A330neo-800. The neo-800, by comparison, seats just 257 in a 3-class configuration and can only fly 7,500. That puts a HNL-LHR at the extreme edge of the aircraft’s performance. Dunkerley has stated that the feasibility of this route will, however, hinge on how the A330neo performs once built, and what kind of configuration Hawaiian uses. It sounds like the neo will likely need to have a less dense configuration to make the route work. Other routes said to be under consideration includes to more East Coast cities, to Canada, and even a further expansion in China. Further expansion in Australia is also possible utilizing Hawaiian’s current fleet of A330ceos and Boeing 767-300ERs.
The big shocker from the interview, though, is the mention of the A380. The A380 is A LOT of airplane, especially for an airline the size of Hawaiian. Dunkerley mentioned that routes an A380 would be flown on includes HNL-LAX and HNL-HND. On it’s HNL-LAX route, Hawaiian operates 3 flights daily, for a total of 882 seats daily. This route is currently operated by Hawaiian’s A332s. On it’s Tokyo route, Hawaiian flies one flight daily to HND and NRT from HNL. That’s a total of 588 seats using Hawaiian’s A332s.
An A380 in a “typical” 3-class configuration holds 525 passengers. Many airlines, however, use different configurations that typically hold 400 to 600 passengers, with an average of around 500 passengers. So yes, an A380 could theoretically work on flights from Honolulu to Tokyo and Los Angeles. In the case of Tokyo, Hawaiian would probably look to consolidate it’s NRT and HND flights to just HND, which should work perfectly. They fly only once a day to each of the area airports, and HND is more convenient, especially since the airline has now been awarded a daytime slot. Using the A380 on flights to LAX, though, means Hawaiian will have to give up frequency to sustain the aircraft on the route. That route has so many competitors that it would be difficult, in my opinion, to fill a lot of new capacity. Unless, of course, Hawaiian uses a dense configuration and competes on price.
The article also goes on to say that Hawaiian will use its new A321neos primarily on West Coast routes. This will allow them to retire a further 3 767s and recommit A33os to Asian routes. The airline currently has 16 A321neos on order for deliver between 2017-2020, with an options for 9 more. 8 767s remain in the fleet.
While the A380 and flights to London certainly aren’t in the cards yet, it’ll be interesting to see how Hawaiian evolves over the next few years. The loss of the A350, to me, was a pretty big blow to their future plans, but it seems like they’re still optimistic. I personally would have preferred they order the 787, but I understand why they didn’t. What do you think? Could you see an A380 graced with Pualani?
This is a real stretch for HA, I mean really 380? I think if their wanting Europe than why not buy the 787-900? I mean after all. Aside from all that the newer “Light weight” birds make much more sense. HA is more susceptible to hiccups in the measure travel needs to be careful 380 is a lot of cost to train and maintain. Having said that i am a fan of the 380 but it’s not the type of equipment for part time commitment to
I agree, ghostrider5408. The A380 is a horrible idea for Hawaiian. Yes, it’ll might actually work on certain routes like HND, LAX, and LAS, but they’d be giving up frequency and should ridership dip and/or fuel prices rise, then the airline will be in trouble. Many questioned why they didn’t pickup the 787 when they had the chance, but Dunkerley stated at the time that they didn’t want to wait through the backlog. That’s a plausible argument, but Dunkerley is also known to be an Airbus fanboy… much like DP over at AA. I think with the cancellation of the A350-800 and the further delay of the A330neo-800, they definitely would have been better off with a 787 derivative. But oh well! We’ll just have to wait and see how things play out. A330neo deliveries are estimated to begin in 2019… and if I remember correctly, Hawaiian is the launch customer on the -800 variant.
yes.
* Allows them to maintain widebody advantage out of LA as they retire older aircraft.
* Competing on price out of LA not all bad – makes it tough on competition/expansion and protects their home turf. Push back on 739 expansion from AK, WN, etc. with a superior customer experience ans greater “perceived” safety over one of the longest no diverson airport overwater stretches in the world.
* They are a bit like Emiratres et all as they are a de facto state airline. State of HI completely dependent on tourism, and thus lift into the market. They would take as many new seats as they can get from anywhere. Wouldn’t surprise me if state of HI threw them a few extra bones of incentive.
* Have you been to Hawaii lately? More British than you would think. China is a market poised for exponential growth and is slot limited in Bejing and Shanghai.
* Can existing 380’s be retrofitted or re-engined? Regardless, appears oil will be lower for longer, probably through the life of the aircraft.
Not saying they will, but based on the Bloomberg article, sounds like the CEO is negotiating over price – “need to be convinced of the business case”. Would be a transformative move for the airline AND the state, opoens the rest of the world to HI nonstop. Out of LAX, would become the hands down first choice from a customer perspective absent FF alliances, which are quickly losing their import anyway.
If you can acquire 380’s for a fraction of a new aircraft, HI is the exact market that could make sense. So yes, I could see it.
Steve, some interesting points there. True, HA is a little like EK, but unlike EK their financials are pretty tight. The markets Dunkerley mentioned, too, are extremely competitive. HND is already served by HA, JL, and NH, with NH stating that they intend to operate an ex-Skymark A380 on the route. HNL-LAX is way over saturated with competition from AA, UA, DL, AS, and VX, all of which offer multiple frequencies per day. Theoretically the route could work if HA is willing to give-up frequencies and can substantially lower ticket prices. However, the A380 is an expensive aircraft to operate, and unless they’re going to go with an awful high-density configuration, I don’t see this working. This is especially true when oil prices start to climb again. I could, however, see this plan potentially working for HNL-LAS. Hawaiian has a near monopoly on direct flights for this route and run at least 3 turns a day using their A332s. But again, the frequency thing could potentially harm them, as local people have a strong (but divided) preference for their flight times on these routes.
And yup, you’re right. LOTs of Brits (and Aussies), Germans, and an increasing amount of Northern Europeans have been choosing Hawaii as their vacation destination. It’s nice to see this growth for sure, and I think a direct link for Europe could work. I think they’d be better off using an A350/787, though. I don’t think an A380 would work on this route; the capacity and frequency probably wouldn’t balance well. But, we’ll see what happens. HA has proven to be very difficult to predict… And they’ve been in the habit of taking risks lately.