Hawaiian Airlines is pulling back flights to Asia and cutting its longest domestic U.S. route. Instead, the airline will fly more frequencies to Australia, Tahiti — and, above all else, between Honolulu and the U.S. West Coast.
Hawaiian announced the network shakeup late Tuesday, revealing plans to suspend its nonstop service between Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) and three destinations:
- Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), effective Nov. 19
- Incheon International Airport (ICN) in Seoul, South Korea, effective Nov. 21
- Fukuoka Airport (FUK) in Fukuoka, Japan, effective Nov. 19
Instead, Hawaiian will increase the number of weekly flights it operates on a handful of domestic and international routes during the peak Hawaii travel months.
Why is Hawaiian cutting flights?
Tuesday’s route cuts are simply economics, Hawaiian said: those three flights had underperformed expectations, the carrier explained in a statement announcing the news — specifically pointing to lagging travel demand from Asia to Hawaii ever since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Visitors to the Aloha State from Japan were down 54% in 2024 versus 2019, according to data from the Hawaii Tourism Authority — due in part to weakness in the yen.
South Korea visitors to Hawaii were down by nearly a third compared with 2019.
“It’s always a difficult decision to suspend a route, especially in cities like Seoul, which we have enjoyed serving for over 14 years,” Hawaiian CEO Joe Sprague said Tuesday, while noting the carrier does “remain committed” to its remaining Japan services from Honolulu.
Hawaiian still flies from its HNL hub to Tokyo via Haneda Airport (HND), as well as to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport (KIX).
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As for Boston, Hawaiian had stiff competition from Delta Air Lines on the longest domestic U.S. route from HNL to BOS.
More flights to the South Pacific and the U.S. West Coast
While Hawaiian may be shrinking its route map, the carrier is adding additional flights to a handful of cities during the Hawaii travel months.
Between mid-December and the end of January, the airline will make its HNL flights to Sydney Airport (SYD) a daily fixture. It’ll also add a second weekly flight to Faaa International Airport (PPT) in Papeete, Tahiti beginning in March.
Travelers can also expect to see Hawaiian’s planes flying a lot more frequently between HNL and the U.S. West Coast: The carrier will add a fifth daily flight to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) during the peak holiday rush. And, it will stack on a fourth daily wintertime flight from Honolulu to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), the home base of its new sister airline, Alaska Airlines.
Post-merger shakeup
The extra SEA and LAX flights are part of a larger network shakeup at Hawaiian after being acquired last year by Alaska Air Group — including an effort to connect more Hawaiian flights with Alaska’s West Coast hubs.
This winter (between October and March) Hawaiian’s total departures on the HNL-SEA route had already been set to rise some 226% versus a year ago, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Other changes are in the works, too.
As TPG reported, Hawaiian’s brand-new Boeing 787 Dreamliners will soon be repainted with Alaska Airlines livery. Those planes will soon stop flying to and from Hawaii, and will instead be deployed on Alaska’s new long-haul international flights out of SEA.
Alaska has said Hawaiian’s older Airbus A330s — which will be its main long-haul aircraft, going forward — will get cabin facelifts in the coming years, including a new business-class and premium economy product.
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