Hawaiian returns Haneda slots due to unfavourable market conditions

Hawaiian Airlines has given up slots for flights to Tokyo’s Haneda airport from Honolulu and Kona effective 2 April, blaming “current market conditions”. The cancelled flights are four-times-weekly service from Honolulu and thrice-weekly connections from Kona, on Hawaii’s Big Island. “Hawaiian did not take this decision lightly,” the company said in a filing with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) on 26 January. “Having invested significant time and resources into building its Haneda operation, Hawaiian resumed the night-time service in October 2023 and has incrementally increased service throughout the current winter scheduling season.” “However, current market conditions make continued operation of the flight economically unviable,” the airline says in the document. Hawaiian adds that the “difficult operating conditions” are related to the Covid-19 pandemic and associated travel restrictions, and the night flight has historically been the weakest flight in Hawaiian’s Haneda operations. “Asia and Japan specifically have been among the last markets to recover from the precipitous drop in travel demand” after the Covid-19 crisis, the company says. ”While Hawaiian saw improvement throughout the second and third quarters of 2023, the recovery stalled when load factors dropped as waivers of the slot and route usage requirements expired.”<br/>