Alaska
The First Hawaiian Airlines Flight On The Chopping Block After The Alaska Airlines Merger – View from the Wing
The First Hawaiian Airlines Flight On The Chopping Block After The Alaska Airlines Merger
I don’t like airline mergers, but I was a big proponent of the idea that the Alaska-Hawaiian merger was about as reasonable as they come. Neither airline dominates the mainland-Hawaii market (neither was even the largest player before the merger, and United, Delta, Southwest and American all offer significant service). Alaska doesn’t overlap on any other routes flown by Hawaiian.
Any degradation in Hawaiian Airlines flying we see post-merger may have happened anyway. The carrier has struggled for the past five years. The Alaska acquisition is a lifeline.
If anything, Alaska overpaid. There’s no real moat in Hawaiian Airlines markets. Alaska really just acquires knowledge of flying to Pacific destinations and some route authorities which are mostly replicable. And they gain a fleet of overwhelmingly Airbus planes for long haul and Hawaii – mainland service, right after finally getting rid of the last of the Airbus fleet acquired in their deal for Virgin America.
Today, Hawaiian Airlines serves:
- Auckland and Sydney
- Fukuoka, Tokyo Haneda and Narita, and Osaka in Japan
- Seoul
- Papeete, Pago Pago, and Raratonga
Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330 First Class
It’s clear that we’re going to see some long haul flying move to Seattle. That means some Hawaiian Airlines widebodies leave Honolulu. There will be fewer widebodies operating between Honolulu and the West Coast, perhaps, and fewer Honolulu – Pacific destinations. But it’s not just those markets that will see planes shift around.
It turns out that this merger is likely to be personally negative for me, because my prediction is that one of the first Hawaiian routes that Alaska Airlines drops is Honolulu – Austin.
- Alaska wants Hawaiian widebodies for Seattle international long haul flying
- The Austin flight has never performed especially well
- It was a pandemic add to begin with when many markets were closed and they needed to find a place to send their planes. Orlando was already axed, but Austin remains.
Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330 First Class
Trying to figure out how quickly this decision might be made, I wondered about service obligations that might flow from subsidies Hawaiian received for the route.
For a few years before the route started, the Austin airport was looking to hand out money for someone to fly to Hawaii. They were also pitching incentives for Amsterdam, Beijing, Dublin, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo.
- Amsterdam was supposed to commence right as the pandemic started, and was delayed. KLM flies this route 3 times weekly.
- Norwegian was supposed to offer Paris service, but ceased transatlantic operations with the pandemic.
- There were rumors of the Delta-Korean joint venture starting Seoul at the time, but the KLM add went first and the pandemic intervened. Austin has no non-stop flights to Asia.
- China flying is certainly off the table at this time. The big Apple presence in Austin made it seem farfetched but not insane back in 2019.
KLM Boeing 787 in Austin
Austin airport, however, tells me that “Hawaiian Airline’s incentives expired in 2023” so there are no requirements for Hawaiian to maintain service.
I’ve taken the Austin – Honolulu flight a few times. In August I had no problem getting five first class award seats using partner miles on the flight for my preferred dates. That’s not a flight that’s doing well! For what amounted to 16,000 Bilt points (transferred to Virgin Atlantic with 150% bonus) apiece I got a great deal, but my bet is not a sustainable one.