Hawaiian Airlines Cuts 77% Of Japan Flights In The Next 2 Months

Simple Flying

By James Pearson

Published Feb 28, 2022

Hawaiian Airlines has reduced its Japan schedule significantly in the March-April, with big questions over its recovery in May.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

Hawaiian Airlines carried 843,831 passengers to/from Japan in 2019, according to T-100 data. Not surprisingly in a very heavily point-to-point market, only about 2% connected to/from the US mainland.

While the vast majority of Hawaiian Airlines' flights are within the state and to the mainland US, Japan is a crucial international market. Over six in ten of its international flights are to the Asian country in regular times. The recovery of the Japanese market will be essential in the road to Hawaiian's international bounce back and its overall financial performance.

But the recovery is delayed. Hawaiian has cut 342 round-trip flights to Japan in March (43) and April (299) in its latest schedule filing. It'll now operate just 100 in those two months, down by 77% versus what was expected to operate last week. That's a drop of 95,000 seats, showing just how fragile particular markets and countries – especially in Asia – remain.

What's the latest?

According to Cirium and reflected in Hawaiian's booking engine, the following changes have been implemented. By far the biggest involves the route ordinarily the most served: Honolulu to Tokyo Haneda. Hawaiian had scheduled 154 flights in April, but this has been cut by over 90%.

Honolulu to Tokyo Haneda: was expected to restart on March 27th but pushed to April 28th
Honolulu to Fukuoka: was March 27th, but now April 29th
Honolulu to Sapporo: was March 29th, but now April 28th
Kona to Tokyo Haneda: won't resume until April 29th
Honolulu to Tokyo Narita: operating 3x weekly departures in March and most of April; had scheduled 1x daily in April
Honolulu to Osaka: running 1x weekly in March and most of April; had scheduled 1x daily in April

Hawaiian Airbus A330-243 N393HA — Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

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The delay was likely

The likelihood of a postponement was high and was based on current conditions and foreseeable circumstances. In Hawaiian's fourth-quarter earnings call, Brent Overbeek, the carrier's SVP of Revenue Management and Network Planning, said the following:

Based on what we know today, we expect to ramp up our service to Japan in the second quarter [April 1st to June 30th]... There could be a further delay to restoring our international network as we remain uncertain about when Japan will fully reopen.

Hawaiian has six routes to Japan. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

What does May look like?

Hawaiian has 372 flights to/from Japan in May, which is hugely optimistic given just 62 in April and 38 in March. No cuts were made to May's schedule in the last filling, but changes are being implemented relatively close to departure as the regulatory and demand picture becomes more apparent.

At the moment, May's schedule looks as follows. However, reductions are inevitable unless restrictions are eased and borders open properly, as they increasingly are across the world.

Honolulu-Haneda: up to 3x daily departures
Honolulu-Osaka: 1x daily
Honolulu-Narita: 1x daily
Honolulu-Fukuoka: 4x weekly
Honolulu-Sapporo: 3x weekly
Kona-Haneda: 3x weekly

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