The recent merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines prompts significant speculation about what’s next for Hawaii’s flagship carrier.

One key question is whether Hawaiian Airlines’ widebody aircraft fleet, consisting of Airbus A330s and the newly introduced Boeing 787s (pictured), will remain in Hawaii or over time be transferred to Alaska’s network based in Seattle.

Hawaiian Airlines has long been crucial in connecting Hawaii to mainland U.S. and international destinations. These widebody jets enable direct flights to North America, Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific, providing access to both visitors and residents.

Now, as Alaska Air Group evaluates the potential profitability of Hawaiian’s operations, Hawaii faces the prospect of losing a valuable asset that has supported its tourism industry for decades: its widebody jets.

Hawaiian Airlines’ widebody fleet: Hawaii’s vital resource.

Hawaiian Airlines’ widebody planes include 24 decade-old Airbus A330-200s and two recently added Boeing 787-9s. These are the workhorses of the airline’s long-haul operations, with the fleet of 18 narrow-body A321neo planes.

If Alaska Air Group decides to reassign some of these widebody aircraft, currently numbered at 26, to its Seattle hub, Hawaii could lose some capacity to serve these crucial markets. These could be replaced with Boeing 737 MAX planes, which, together with its legacy 737 planes, are the mainstay of the Alaska Airlines fleet.

The unique role of Hawaii’s Pacific hub.

Hawaii has long been a gateway between the U.S. mainland and the broader Asia-Pacific region. Honolulu International Airport serves as a vital hub for tourists, residents, and commerce. Hawaiian Airlines has capitalized on its geographical advantage by offering direct widebody flights to cities in Japan, South Korea, and Australia, among others.

The merger, however, is poised to mix up the Hawaiian Airlines fleet. While Alaska Airlines has committed to maintaining the Hawaiian brand, the question remains whether it will continue prioritizing Hawaii’s needs like standalone Hawaiian Airlines once did.

If some of Hawaiian Airlines’ widebody planes are redirected to Seattle, likely for new international routes, it isn’t entirely clear how Hawaiian will serve destinations beyond the reach of its A321neo fleet.

How can Alaska Air Group keep Hawaii’s needs at the forefront?

Alaska Air faces a delicate balancing act in Hawaii. On the one hand, the company needs to improve Hawaiian Airlines’ dismal financial performance, which had put the airline on the verge of bankruptcy prior to Alaska’s purchase. At the same time, Alaska must consider the broader impact on Hawaii if Hawaiian’s widebody planes are reassigned to Alaska’s Seattle-based operations.

Alaska Air Group’s recent decision to hire an International Development Director suggests that the company is serious about expanding its long-haul operations. However, could this move come at a cost to Hawaii if it results in the transfer of Hawaiian’s widebody aircraft out of the islands?

Alaska’s expertise in aircraft deployment.

Alaska Airlines is adept at deploying the most efficient aircraft for each route, as will undoubtedly be the case in Hawaii. Recently, for example, they swapped out their smaller Embraer E175 jets with larger Boeing 737 planes on a Seattle to California route. That move accommodated increased demand while allowing them to operate with greater efficiency.

As Alaska Air integrates Hawaiian Airlines, this proven ability to optimize fleet deployment could play a role in determining how Hawaiian’s wide-body planes are utilized—whether those stay in Hawaii or are repurposed for distant markets. That won’t happen overnight, and there are issues that Alaska will need to navigate including Seattle gate constraints.

The Alaska Airlines-Hawaiian Airlines merger comes with opportunities and risks.

While Alaska Airlines will undoubtedly look to improve Hawaiian Air’s financial situation significantly, it must also carefully consider the potential consequences for Hawaii operations if widebody aircraft are shifted away from Honolulu.

Hawaiian Airlines has been a cornerstone of Hawaii’s travel and tourism industry, and the widebody fleet has played a crucial role in maintaining Hawaii’s connectivity to the world.

The future of Hawaiian Airlines’ widebody fleet remains uncertain for the time being. However, one thing is clear: Hawaii has much to lose if these planes “fly the coop,” and Alaska Air Group will need to tread carefully to avoid grounding Hawaii’s tourism industry.

We welcome your thoughts on the Hawaiian Air widebody fleet.

September is the final month of the dry season for most of Hawaii — and after August’s deluge caused by the passage of Hurricane Hone south of the Big Island, rainfall totals fell back to earth.

Particularly dry were areas along the Kona-Kohala Coast. Puuanahulu, in North Kona, received just 0.22 inch, 9% of its September norm. Waikoloa was even drier, with just 0.1 inch, 10% of its average for the month. And Pohakuloa West’s gauge measured just 0.15 inch, also a tenth of its normal September, its lowest September total since 2008.

“If it wasn’t for the tropical cyclone in August, I think the drought would be pretty bad on the Big Island,” Kevin Kodama, senior service hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Honolulu, said Friday. “And it’s already starting to dry out again — in some places, anyway. Maybe not so much in Kona, but up in South Kohala and some interior areas, such as the Pohakuloa region are drying out again.

“It’s unfortunate you had to have all the impacts from (Hone) — the power outages, the wind damage, the flooding, too much of a good thing at one time down in Waiohinu. But that’s how drought relief occurs, sometimes.”

Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport in Keahole got almost twice its usual September rainfall, but that still amounted to just under an inch.

The Kona coffee belt experiences its wet season in the summer, and its four official gauges, as well as two Ka‘u coffee region gauges, got their fair share of rainfall last month.

Waiaha registered 9.9 inches, almost twice its norm, while Kainaliu measured 8.85 inches, Kealakekua 6.94 inches and Honaunau 6.5 inches.

“Most of that all came in one day,” Kodama said, referring to a low-level trough that fueled heavy rainfall on Sept. 17 along the Kona slopes.

Bill Myers, CEO of Heavenly Hawaiian Coffee Farm in Holualoa, said the Kona coffee crop is still being influenced by heavier rainfall months ago.

“Early in the season when we were going through the flowering, we had pretty much continuous rainfall,” Myers said. “We didn’t get any extended dry snap during the early months of the season. What that meant was we got a lot of very small flowers. We got a lot of them, but they were small. We’re about to see the results of that.

“The small flowers have led to very small harvests — a lot of them but smaller than usual harvests. In the end, what that means is that we are going to have about 20% less Kona coffee from this harvest than from last year, when we had a glut.”

Myers said there is still unprocessed coffee from last year, as well, although this year’s coffee crop is expected to be of higher quality, if lesser quantity, and prices will remain on the lower side.

“The result will be bad news for Kona coffee farmers but good news for Kona coffee drinkers,” he noted.

The two southeastern Ka‘u gauges, Kapapala and Pahala — both in the Ka‘u coffee region — tallied 6.96 inches and 5.8 inches, respectively, both well above September averages. For Pahala, it was its rainiest September since 2015.

Also experiencing its highest September totals in the past nine years were Hakalau, with 8.48 inches, and Honokaa, with 5.4 inches.

Hilo International Airport recorded 6.75 inches, 78% of its September average. Piihonua, above Hilo, received 12.6 inches, but that was a little more than 2 inches less than its normal September.

Mountain View, in upper Puna, registered 9.85 inches, but that’s 75% of its September average. And in lower Puna, Pahoa had 5.38 inches, slightly less than half its normal September rainfall.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.

Three thoughts after San Diego State’s 27-24 win over Hawaii on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium.

1. Flipping the script

The Aztecs dropped to 1-4 this season on the coin toss.

SDSU coach Sean Lewis has worked in practice this season to, among other things, increase the offense and decrease the penalties.

How do you improve your record on the coin toss?

Unsolicited advice: Call heads.

Scientific American reported this year on exhaustive research conducted at the University of Amsterdam in which a coin was flipped 350,757 times.

Citing “same-side bias,” it came up heads 51 percent of the time. Hey, wherever you can get an edge.

That being said, it was more important that SDSU avoided seeing its record drop to 1-4 for the first time since 2008, when the Aztecs lost 10 of their first 11 games on the way to a 2-10 finish.

That season, the last under the wrong Long, included a seven-game losing streak. SDSU avoided the possibility of a similar toboggan run by ending a three-game losing streak with the victory over the Rainbow Warriors.

Most important, the Aztecs learned how to win with the game hanging in the balance.

“We’ve talked all along about how important the work is and that work works,” Lewis said. “We need to be committed to our process and our conviction with how we’re going to do it and that the character of the club and the attitude we bring would show up tonight.

“Tonight is a byproduct of the way that our guys have pulled together through all the adversity, putting the blinders on, leaning and relying on one another.”

After a last-minute, one-point loss at Central Michigan in which SDSU led for most of the game, what would losing in similar fashion have done to the Aztecs’ collective psyche?

SDSU had a 20-10 lead midway through the third quarter against Hawaii, then watched the Rainbows put together 12- and 14-play touchdown drives for a 24-20 advantage with less than 10 minutes to play.

The Aztecs responded with their second-longest touchdown drive of the season, an eight-play, 87-yard march. It was keyed by quarterback Danny O’Neil’s 48-yard pass to wide receiver Nate Bennett and capped by running back Marquez Cooper’s game-winning 2-yard touchdown run.

Said Lewis: “We were able to get critical stops, we were able to get scores when needed and special teams did a great job of flipping the field and getting points all on their own. … To get that shot of life and for these guys to be able to celebrate and do things the right way, that’s big.”

2. ‘Valuing’ the football

A concern with O’Neil during spring football and training camp was being a little fast and loose with the football. SDSU defenders let him know in practice and scrimmages, picking off several passes.

It wasn’t recklessness, necessarily, but perhaps trying to do things O’Neil could get away with in high school that won’t fly in college.

Apparently, O’Neil got the ill-advised throws out of his system. His college career has started with 113 straight passes without an interception.

O’Neil is barely halfway to the 209 in a row Robert Griffin III threw without a pick when he was a freshman at Baylor, but his start is notable nonetheless.

O’Neil completed his first 10 passes against Hawaii, finishing 24-for-33 for 224 yards and a touchdown. Obviously, he listened to Lewis’ pregame instructions.

“I told him before we went out there that we’re wearing black tonight, so throw it to the guys in the black shirt,” said Lewis, before getting serious. “He does a great job knowing and understanding what is open at this level.

“I think that’s something that young quarterbacks have to learn and they have to feel on their own. He’s done a very good job of that with his film study and the actual application of what he’s been able to do.”

Lewis said going against SDSU’s defense, especially an experienced secondary, quickly helped O’Neil learn “this is open, that ain’t open.”

“We get to compete against that on a daily basis,” Lewis said. “When you go against another opponent … you have a good feel for where you can fit a football and where you can’t.”

It has to be tempting at times to air it out, but O’Neil hasn’t allowed himself to get carried away.

“Being able to protect the ball on Saturdays is my main job,” O’Neil said. “Just being able to put the ball in playmakers’ hands, distribute the ball and not have any turnovers, that’s my goal every week.”

3. Trey sacks

SDSU edge Trey White had three sacks two games ago at Central Michigan. It wasn’t enough to prevent a frustrating, painful loss.

So White went out and repeated the feat against Hawaii.

“I just wanted to come up big for our team,” said White, a sophomore from Eastlake High School. “We didn’t want to have that feeling of a loss again. I hate that feeling, and I know our whole team does.

“The look on our faces after that Central Michigan game was terrible, and I never want that to happen again.”

White has nine sacks on the season, giving him a share of the national lead with Boston College’s Donovan Ezeiruaku. White’s 1.8 sacks/game would be a national record if maintained throughout the season. Terrell Suggs averaged 1.7 sacks a game (24 for the season) in 2002 at Arizona State.

Lewis credits White for bringing the “same relentless approach that he has every single day.”

“We’ve been talking about him and buzzing about him ever since we got here,” said Lewis, who repositioned White from linebacker to edge this season. “It’s a testament to the belief our staff had in him to bring him closer to the ball. With his skill set, with his ability, we knew that he was going to be a great fit in what we were building.

“He’s the standard for what it looks like in terms of the approach and the discipline and the character and the conviction that’s required to show up and produce on a weekly basis the way that he does.”

Originally Published: October 6, 2024 at 5:45 p.m.