Hawaii Vacation Deals Spurred by Latest Plane Orders

We recently reported on the upcoming acquisition of Hawaiian Air Airbus 321neo’s. On Friday, Airbus announced new options which add flexibility and reduce costs. This aircraft plus new plane orders at Alaska Air and Southwest Air will facilitate future competition resulting in more Hawaii vacation deals in the years ahead. Here’s why.

Hawaii vacation deals and new plane orders

Airbus just announced two changes related to Hawaiian’s latest aircraft choice. These include an additional over-wing exit and a Space-Flex aft galley/twin lavatory option pictured here. Together these allow the single isle airliner to accommodate up to 236 passengers, 16 more than previously possible, offering carriers like Hawaiian up to 5% additional reduction in cost per seat mile flown over the standard configuration.

It isn’t clear that Hawaiian will opt for a version of this new higher density configuration. If they do, we don’t know how many seats would be included or the seat pitch. Prior to the Airbus announcement, Hawaiian had indicated they would use 190 seats in their A321neo’s.

Hawaiian, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines Hawaii competition

These new configuration options may offer Hawaiian an advantage in single isle aircraft, compared to competitor Alaska Air and upcoming Hawaii entrant Southwest Air, both of which now use and and will continue to purchase Boeing 737 plane variants accommodating up to 180 passengers.

The new Airbus plane will give Hawaiian the ability, for the first time, to fly into smaller airports such at Lihue Kauai, and to do so from further inland than the west coast. Reaching smaller and less trafficked airports has proven a strategic advantage for Alaska Air.

Hawaiian has been limited by aircraft and demand to serving only Honolulu and Maui directly from the US mainland. The A321neo also gives Hawaiian a way to cost effectively address markets where their 294 passenger Airbus A330-200 is simply too large.

Any way you look at it, aircraft changes coming over the next four years will mean more competition between Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and in the future Southwest Airlines. And that’s good new for those of us who fly to and from Hawaii.