Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines under the Alaska Air Group (AAG) has its eye on expanding like never before. And, yesterday, they gave us a previous of what that’ll look like as AAG launched its first new international routes. Actually, two new routes were launched yesterday. Let’s discuss.
Recently, we learned that Alaska and Hawaiian were optimizing some of its Hawai’i-West Coast routes by having just a single airline in one market and by adding a second Hawaiian widebody flight and reducing Alaska’s number of frequencies in another. However, Alaska Air Group dropped a major bombshell ahead of its investor day as AAG launched its first new international routes and revealed high-level details of their near-term expansion plans.
AAG Launched Its First New International Routes
To be quite honest, this is happening a lot quicker than I thought it would. The two airlines won’t be on a single customer service system and won’t have a shared loyalty program when the first of these new flights commence. Nevertheless, yesterday, AAG launched its first new international routes, and they’re a safe play, at least in terms of operational knowledge.
Seattle-Tokyo Narita
The first of these new international routes will be a daily flight between Seattle and Tokyo Narita. Commencing on May 12, 2025, this flight will be operated by a Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330-200, and will be crewed by Hawaiian pilots and flight attendants. This makes sense, as the two will still have separate operating certificates and only Hawaiian pilots are certified to fly Airbus aircraft. Not to mention, seniority lists and whatnot haven’t been worked through yet.
At any rate, this new flight is already for sale and will operate as follows:
- HA823: departing SEA at 1:40 pm PT and arriving the next day at 4:00 pm JT
- HA824: departing NRT at 6:25 pm JT and arriving the same day at 11:40 am PT
It’s worth noting that to operate this flight, AAG is moving Hawaiian’s existing HNL-NRT frequency to SEA. Today, those flights are:
- HA821: departing at 12:40 pm HST and arriving the next day at 4:00 pm JT
- HA822: departing at 7:55 pm JT and arriving the same day at 8:25 am HST
Now, the above flights are still on-sale past the May 12, 2025 launch date for the new SEA-NRT one. So, either Hawaiian has a slot right that it isn’t using, or they simply haven’t pulled inventory from their booking channels yet. At any rate, if you’re booked onto one of these HNL-NRT flights on or after May 12, 2025, you may want to look into getting that changed.
Speaking of, the fact that AAG launched its first new international routes means the loss of a Hawaiian HNL route is concerning. However, they’re compensating for this by boosting capacity on between Honolulu and Tokyo Haneda. Currently, Hawaiian is operating this route 12 times weekly, and with this change, we’ll see it move to 14 times weekly for two flights every day of the week. Moreover, AAG will be preserving existing Hawaiian flights from Honolulu to Osaka and Fukuoka.
In case you’re wondering, those Haneda flights are:
- HA863: departing HNL at 1:10 pm HST and arriving at HND at 5:10 pm JT the following day
- HA864: departing HND at 8:15 pm JT and arriving at HNL the same day at 8:30 am HST
- HA457: departing HNL at 3:35 pm HST and arriving at HND at 7:25 pm JT the following day
- HA458: departing HND at 9:20 pm JT and arriving at HNL the same day at 9:35 am HST
On a final note, you may be wondering why AAG chose NRT over HND for its first SEA international route. Well, that has to do with how slots are assigned at HND. The US Department of Transportation (DOT) must approve of all slot uses for US carriers at HND, and those uses must substantially benefit the traveling public. So, changing a flight from HNL to SEA would be more complicated, and would open the route up to objections and possible takeover by other airlines. The NRT change still requires government approval (which is still pending), but changing there is far less complicated and risky.
Seattle-Seoul Incheon
As AAG launched its first new international routes, the second of the two they announced was a new Seattle-Seoul flight. Like the new SEA-NRT route, this one will also be branded Hawaiian, will utilize an Airbus A330-200, and will be crewed by Hawaiian personnel. However, there isn’t much else to discuss at this point, beyond the fact that flights are slated to begin in October 2025.
I suspect this route will require a bit more red tape, as they’ll be seeking authorization for an entirely new route with new slot rights, as Hawaiian will keep its existing HNL-ICN service. At any rate, more details should become available in the next few months.
Further Expansion
As I mentioned earlier, as AGG launched its first new international routes, these two new flights are just the beginning. In fact, AAG states that they plan on operating “at least 12” international flights out of Seattle by 2030. Moreover, to support this expansion, they plan on hiring 100 new Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants, additional Hawaiian ground crews, and an undisclosed number of new Hawaiian Airlines pilots. That said, aircraft for the two new Asian routes will be based in Seattle, not Honolulu, though I’m sure they’ll rotate throughout Hawaiian’s system.
It’s difficult to say what these plans mean for the future. Does this mean that Hawaiian will handle all of AAG’s international flying and the bulk of the Lower 48-Hawai’i flying? Or is this a pragmatic move to get things going while they wait for their single operating certificate? At this point, it’s exceedingly difficult to say. However, what’s abundantly clear is that interesting times lay ahead.
Why the A330
With news that AAG launched its first new international routes, I know one of the biggest questions the community will be why the A330? Why not Hawaiian’s gorgeous new Boeing 787-9s? Well, the A330s are simply the right-size aircraft for the job. Their denser configurations and less premium capacity are a safer bet for markets that have yet to recover, especially as unfavorable exchange rates continues to hamper Japanese demand. Plus, the A330s already have SpaceX Starlink installed on them.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a quote directly from Alaska Air’s announcement:
Our new widebody service between Seattle and Tokyo Narita enables us to right-size our capacity between Hawaiʻi and Japan, a market that has experienced a weaker leisure travel demand in the wake of the pandemic.
This is a similar strategy Hawaiian used when it first began opening up its Japanese routes. At the time, they’d us their older Boeing 767-300ERs to operate to new destinations like Japan and Korea, while the newer, larger Airbus A330s operated the airline’s flagship routes, such as HNL-LAX. Only, back then, the 767s had recliner seats up front, whereas the A330s at least have lie-flat seats.
At any rate, I imagine that the Boeing 787-9s will continue to take over Hawaiian’s flagship routes, especially Hawai’i-East Coast flying, which will then free up more A330s for Alaska’s international experiments. Hawaiian expects three 787 deliveries next year, which is probably where these A330s are coming from, at least in part.
AAG Launched Its First New International Routes, Final Thoughts
While there is much more to cover beyond that AAG launched its first new international routes, this post is getting exceedingly long as it is. So, I’ll stop things here for now and will cover other new revelations in the coming days. Carlos and I will also be recording an episode on these new routes in an episode of Da Kine Travel Show that I think will drop in January. So, if you haven’t checked us out there yet, please do so!