Hawaiian Airlines Chief Revenue Officer, Brent Overbeek, has confirmed that the carrier has no immediate plans to retire its Boeing 717 fleet.
Speaking during its Q1 Earnings Call on Tuesday, Overbeek stated that Hawaiian will continue to operate through the mid-20s and has yet to start looking for a successor. Overbeek noted,
“We’re able to keep that airplane flying well through the middle of this decade. We’ve got a majority of our fleet that is owned with no outstanding debt on it. And so that makes it an extremely low ownership cost fleet for us.”
Longer lifespan
Questions have been raised over the future of the 717 fleet, now averaging around 20 years old. However, Overbeek verified that the jet continues to fill its specific niche, island hopping across the Hawaiian archipelago.
In response to a question from Helane Becker at Cowen Inc., regarding the status of the fleet, Overbeek said,
“The 717 is a terrific aircraft for what we do as we’ve said for really, as long as I’ve been with Hawaiian. It’s a pretty good size for the demand levels in the market. It is a low operating cost airplane from a cycle perspective which in many cases the cycle impacts on maintenance costs, is a bigger driver on very short haul flying than fuel cost is.”
No potential replacements have been identified either, with Overbeek noting that its only specifications are really to have something slightly larger, though not as large as its medium-haul Airbus A321s, adding,
“Eventually we will be looking at replacements. I think a couple of things that we consider is whether an airplane slightly larger would be better. I don’t think it would be dramatically larger because at the fringes of the day that would give us an airplane that was putting more seats in the market than we needed. We’re going to continue to evaluate that over time, maybe a little bit bigger than what we have now would be better.”
Potential replacements
The A321 is Hawaiian’s only other narrowbody jet, serving slightly longer-range routes to the US West Coast. The aircraft currently seats 189 passengers, something Overbeek describes as significantly more capacity than would be needed on its several-daily services.
Currently, the 717 seats between 123 and 128 in a two-class configuration. Speculatory replacements have included the Airbus A220, which seats up to 150 passengers, Embraer E195, which has roughly the same capacity as the 717, and the upcoming Boeing 737 MAX 7, which can seat up to 172.
Chief Executive Peter Ingram has previously expressed an interest in electric aircraft, remarking that the technology is still a long way off but would be open to examining it further.
The announcement is likely a sigh of relief for fans of the ever-rarer aircraft, with aviation enthusiasts noticing the carrier had started to deploy its A321s and A330s on the 717’s typical neighbor island route following several cancellations through the Easter period.
Speaking to local media, External Communications Director Alex Da Silva confirmed it had experienced issues with the flight simulator leading to a backlog for training. He noted that the problem has since been resolved, and the carrier is training at full capacity to minimize future disruptions.
Have you flown on the 717? What do you think its replacement should be? Let us know in the comments.
Sources: Seeking Alpha, Beat Of Hawaii