Hawaiian Airlines to continue pax ATR ops, defers B787s

Hawaiian Airlines (HA, Honolulu) has rescinded a previous decision to suspend regional passenger services under the 'Ohana brand, operated by Empire Airlines (EM, Coeur d'Alene), on November 1 and will instead continue them through at least mid-January 2021, although with a "minimal baseline schedule".

The carrier said that it had been advised by the US Department of Transportation that services from Honolulu to Kaunakakai and Lanai City are considered Essential Air Services. As such, it is obligated to notify the DOT at least 90 days before the intended suspension of these routes, to allow the authorities to tender for a new operator.

Hawaiian Airlines underlined that although these routes are eligible for EAS funding, it never received any subsidies for its flights to Kaunakakai and Lanai City. Currently, the cities are served 4x and 3x daily, respectively, using Empire Airlines' ATR42-500s.

Speaking during the carrier's quarterly earnings call, Chief Executive Peter Ingram stressed that the underlying logic behind the decision had not changed. Hawaiian had initially planned to suspend the routes due to a clause in its collective labour agreement with pilots, which prevents outsourcing flying when in-house operations drop below a certain level.

"We have a requirement that if you do a 12-month look-back of the block hours of our Neighbour Island mainline airline flying [it has to be] above 29,000 hours [to allow outsourcing]. And so as we’ve reduced our schedules for April, May, June, July through to now, we will hit a point here in October, where we go below 29,000 [block hours]," Ingram explained.

He said that due to runway and terrain limitations, the airline was not considering using its in-house B717-200s to serve Kaunakakai and Lanai City, and would instead continue using the Avions de Transport Régional turboprops.

Empire Airlines also operates four ATR72-200(F)s on behalf of Hawaiian under the 'Ohana brand. These services were not affected by the now-reversed cuts.

Ingram also confirmed that the airline had reached an agreement with Boeing to defer the deliveries of its first B787-9s by more than a year.

"We reached an agreement with Boeing to defer the two B787 deliveries that were scheduled for the first half of 2021 to September and December 2022 and subsequent deliveries to 2024 through 2026," Chief Financial Officer Shannon Okinaka said.

While the first B787 delivery is currently scheduled for September 2022, Ingram added that the type's actual entry into service was unlikely before "early 2023". The carrier has ten B787-9s on order, including five from Boeing and five through lessors.