Airlines are struggling to survive in what’s been our “new normal” for a while now. One of the hardest hit, though, has been taking its strategy in another direction. As a result, Hawaiian Air adjusts its inter-island strategy to give it a competitive edge in an ever-stiffening competitive environment.
There’s no secret that Southwest Airlines is giving Hawaiian Airlines the strongest competitor its seen in ages. And it’s only going to get stronger as Southwest brings its Boeing 737 MAXs back online and gets the ETOPS certified. After all, its lack of aircraft, along with the pandemic, seriously curtailed its Hawaii plans. But, as soon as Southwest can, you can bet we’ll see them add on more routes to Hawaii. This also means that, in typical Southwest fashion, maximizing aircraft utilization by increasing its inter-island flying.
Hawaii Air Adjusts Inter-Island Strategy
Long the bastion of Hawaiian Air’s operations, inter-island flying is a tough business model to succeed at. It’s expensive, it’s hard on aircraft, and Hawaii residents are fiercely loyal to their hometown airline. But, Hawaiian knows it’s never seen a competitor like Southwest. Though the Boeing 737 is not an ideal aircraft to operate on inter-island flights for a number of reasons, Southwest knows how to fly efficiently. Plus, pre-pandemic, they were immensely profitable. Luckily for Hawaiian, it has been able to maintain its edge by maintaining a robust inter-island schedule. That includes early morning and late flights with frequencies as high as every 30-minutes during peak travel hours.
To stay a step ahead, though, Hawaiian is adjusting its inter-island strategy. That involves changing how it operates its inter-island outstations. So, beginning June 1, 2021, Hawaiian will begin overnighting aircraft and crews in Lihue, Kahului, Kona, and Hilo. This way, Hawaiian can
- Offer earlier flights out of their outstations
- Reduce overnight congestion in Honolulu
- Boost non-Honolulu inter-island flight frequencies
- Reduce costly positioning flights
Schedule Changes
While this change in strategy will allow Hawaiian to fly earlier flights out of its neighbor island stations, it is also changing its schedule out of Honolulu. In fact, across its schedule, the earliest inter-island flights will now leave at about 6 am. That’s 45 minutes to an hour and fifteen earlier from the neighbor islands to Honolulu, but over 30 minutes later for flights out of Honolulu. Likewise, Hawaiian’s last inter-island flights are set to depart earlier, nearly an hour earlier. That means, for flights from Maui to Oahu, the last flight will now leave at 9 pm instead of 9:50 pm. But, the last Oahu to Maui flight is now leaving later, departing at, you guessed it, 9 pm instead of 8:40 pm.
As for non-Honolulu flights seeing frequency boosts, that’d be flights out off Kahului. Specifically, Hawaiian will operate an additional three roundtrips per day between Kahului and Kona and between Kahului and Lihue.
Doesn’t Overnighting Cost More?
It’s no secret that Hawaiian is trying to reduce costs. So, overnighting crews at outstations sound counter-intuitive. But, from what I understand, Hawaiian has quite a few commuting employes – or employees that live on neighbor islands that must fly to Honolulu to work. Plus, Hawaiian has does have a mini-hub at Kahului. As a result, if Hawaiian does its scheduling right, this plan actually could save them money and headaches. That’s because it can utilize crews living on the neighbor islands to operate its new, earlier flights and avoid paying for hotels. That’s a big if, though.
Aside from saving costs, this new plan, if done right, can improve employee satisfaction too. After all, commuting, even if it’s free, can be a pain – especially if you get into a situation where you can’t get on to your positioning flight.
My Take
Will Hawaiian’s change in inter-island strategy make a difference? Only time will tell. If it helps them boost their operational efficiency and get ahead of the competition, then this is a smart move. However, only Southwest knows what they’ll do next. And if early talks and newer rumors hold true, Southwest will annihilate any West Coast route monopolies Hawaiian has. This is probably why Hawaiian launched its newest long routes to Orland and Austin, as it gives them routes, aside from New York and Boston, that Southwest can’t compete with them on. And that makes me all the more excited to see what they do with their Dreamliners when they finally arrive.
What do you think about Hawaiian’s new strategy?
Special thanks to my friend for bringing these changes to my attention. You know who you are 😉
If Hawaiian wants to compete intra-island, they have no choice but to offer 2-free bags for those intra-island flights. If im paying $60 to fly from Maui to Honolulu while im on vacation, im not paying $60 for bags when that’ll cost me $0 on southwest.
That’d be nice, but I don’t see them doing that. It’s a perk of having the credit card and offering free checked bags would devalue what’s already an underwhelming card.
HA will get its comeuppance WHEN (not if) WN flies non stop to LV. Interisland no big deal but @ Tony above has a major point. I see, HA charging > $800 rt to LAS this month and next!! (w/xtra comfort seat that’s > $1000) ABSURD!!! You think they give a rip about the locals??
That’s what I’m saying! Their golden ticket is in trouble. THOUGH, I’m willing to bet real money that a lot of people will continue to fly Hawaiian anyway. Especially since it’s one of the few routes in which Hawaiian caters its schedule to kama’aina. But, while this change is about protecting inter-island flying, the realization that their West Coast monopolies will cease being that, forcing them to retrench. It’ll be like way back in the day when they made the bulk of their revenue from inter-island flying.
I’m very loyal to Hawaiian when I fly to Maui from my home in Seattle. Alaska would be my second choice. Hawaiian has the most comfortable plane for crossing the Pacific, Southwest seats are not nearly as comfortable, they pack you in,plus Southwest schedulebisnt very desirable. I’ll stick with Hawaiian!
The when is here! WN rt non stop at less than (in some cases) a one way on HA to LV (and 2 free bags to boot). Like I said, HA WILL get its comeuppance very shortly. Instead of counting beans, they ill be eating crow and deservedly so for raping the locals on this route. Only a bloody fool would pay over $1000 for a flight that can be had for under $400. You mean to tell me that HA flight is worth $600 more?? In what terms? ZERO.
Oh, I already know there will be a large number of kama’aina that will continue to fly Hawaiian regardless. It’ll be interesting to see how Hawaiian responds to this, especially since they’re still hurting. That said I’m (tentatively) going to be flying Hawaiian to LAS later this year.
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In full disclosure and despite my vent… I have just booked a HNL-LAS on HA! Lol. Only that leg tho, as the times were favorable, LAS-HNL was booked on WN ( gotta stay true ya know lol) Good Luck to you when you hit LV! If you like tacos… Tacos el Gordo!! (the one on Charleston, not the one on the Strip. Social media has turned that one into a shyt show, whereas the one on Charleston – very likely you’ll be the only non-Hispanic in there!)
LOL! It’s ok. In the before times, I’d go to Vegas once a year for work. Usually, I’d redeye on Hawaiian on the way over and would fly Alaska home with a stop in either San Francisco or Seattle. Call me crazy, but I enjoy visiting those airports 😉. And thanks for the tip! I don’t really gamble, so I’ve been researching food. I know I want to try for e! by Jose Andres again since I had to cancel last year. But there’s a lot of interesting things opening this year too!