edgewood49

well looks like AS will have another run at it's loads this time from Hawaiian. Seems their Asian runs are not panning out like they thought so now back to what they did best Mainland to Hawaii.

And with their wide bodies they should be offering some killer deals from the west coast over. Maybe AS will revisit their service to the islands and finally up the offering and quality. maybe.

ANC

hmm I wasnt sure what this thread was going to be about. "sites" should be sights When I saw the topic title I thought maybe you meant "flights" and maybe there was some sort of volcanic activity going on. But regarding your topic I wouldnt expect to see much of any changes to ANC PDX BLI or SEA service. SJC OAK and SAN services seem to be on thin ice as it is. I wouldnt be surprised to see some of that southern CA stuff go away especially when AS starts TPA and MSY. Its possible HA sees that writing already on the wall

edgewood49

http://blog.wandr.me/2014/03/hawaiia...-mainland-usa/

waywired

Hawaiian has always been decent. 767's are nice from a space perspective. They have to really think about what would make sense to add as routes

edgewood49

If their dropping some of their Asian flights they have to do something with those metal cans to pay for them! It is somewhat interesting that HA was not able to penetrate the Asian market. They have a large other in for AB's!

ANC

not really, the market is already pretty well covered by Asian based carriers with large wide bodies and not to mention several other US based carriers have established services in the region to HNL

edgewood49

HA went to market as the Hawaiian airline serving their customers in the islands which a majority being of Asian decent, my wife being one. Along with that is the large Philippine and Korean communities in the islands. As I said it is somewhat surprising to me. The new CEO from England brought in a new model that did apparently has not worked well. While I am not thrilled but use DL when flying east now that CO is gone.

WrightHI

That "new CEO" has been there for over 10 years and I don't see any sign that he or his board thinks the basic strategy is wrong. They tried some Asian markets that haven't panned out, but they appear to be doing very well on the Australia routes, and they're still flying a lot of seats to Japan and Korea. They've got some rethinking to do on hard product up front on the long hauls and they're way late with narrowbodies for west coast - neighbor island direct service, but overall they still appear to be in a very good place.

Now if they'd just get some competent attention to their loyalty program and a few of the nuts and bolts operational issues (eg baggage handling). The quality of the management team may be a little uneven after the top couple of people.

Orwaid

It does not surprise me that HA is having TPAC troubles. Y is slightly worse than International carrriers, C is MUCH worse. I suspect they will do better with additional 5 hour flights to the mainland, where their seats and service more closely align with what AS and others are offering

edgewood49

Your correct in saying he has been there awhile did not know ten years.

Australia has been the "target" of some pretty intense marketing by the islands and appears to be really paying off.

Have not flown HA internationally so can not comment there.

I do think that if they had a little better alliance program they might pick up some as well. They like AS seem to prefer to be "alone" although with AS we can get to Europe which i use.

Heck I use love love HA's 1011"s !!!!

WrightHI

The contrast in strategies with AS is interesting as they compete on the HI - west coast routes. HA has a significantly nicer product in front (and generally sells it for less) and a slightly nicer product in back, but their loyalty program and partnerships are marginal at best, which ends up making AS a better value proposition for people who fly more. AS first isn't the greatest product in the world, but it's better than anybody's coach!

Edited to add: HA is very much focused on bringing tourists to Hawaii. They're happy to fly locals elsewhere, but they get most of that business just by being a local company so don't do much to compete for it. I think they've thought that investing in meaningful partnerships wouldn't generate enough marginal business to be cost-effective, but I still wonder if they missed a bet by not going bigger with the AA partnership they announced last year.

edgewood49

Good points and I whole heartily agree about the cabins. AS FC is dismal to say the least and I end up buying food from the back. In fact I get the fruit $ cheese tray regularly.

AS has one of if not the most loyal FF programs out there and that's one huge factor in their success flying to the islands. FF's get a huge chunk of miles and connections work well.

My wife who's mother is Hawaiian prefers HA, and yes the service is better to the point that their coach going over is as good as AS FC. And yes I would much prefer a two isle plane versus one. Just as I will not fly a single isle bird to Europe.

sea_jeff

Interesting points.

I have to admit that if you remove the Mileage Plan portion of the equation there's no way I would buy a seat on AS vs. HA on my SEA-Hawaii trips.

jackal

I, too, would prefer a plane that can land on two isles, not just one.

That said, although I, too, like widebodies, I really can't figure out why people don't like single-aisle planes to Europe. The seat is the same, the leg room is the same, the IFE is the same...there really isn't anything tangible about why a widebody should be more comfortable, other than the general lesser feeling of claustrophobia due to the larger cabin.

P.S. If you think about it, a single-isle plane couldn't fly from JFK to LHR...although it could make it from EWR to LHR.

edgewood49

You are exactly right and thats what AS has to base their flights on