Thanks to a tip from regular readers, we learned that Hawaiian Airlines will suspend a long-running and successful route until late spring, leaving the route, for now, to competitor Southwest Airlines. It also made us wonder why Hawaiian abandoned that route for more than two months. Reader Harvey said, “We fly to Kahului from Oakland a few times a year and just noticed that without any notice, Hawaiian ceased all direct flights from OAK-OGG until May 25th. Must go to SFO. Humbug.”
See below for what we believe might be the cause(s) of the service suspension.
Choice 1: Fares are too cheap due to low demand for flights to Maui for a variety of reasons. Even when the flights return, fares start at an unprofitable $100 each way.
Choice 2: Airbus A321neo issues continue to plague Hawaiian Airlines, and something had to give. We saw a number of A321neo planes at the Hawaiian Air hangar last week when we were onboard the new Dreamliner. One of those is pictured above. We don’t know how many of planes in that narrow-body fleet are offline at this time.
This wouldn’t be the first flights culled due to these A321neo issues.
Some engine components risk cracking due to a rare powder metal defect that impacts the 321 fleet. Last fall Reuters first reported that repairs could require as much as 300 days out-of-service per engine. That is five times longer than previously thought. Hawaiian told us that the engines are returned directly to RTX and that repairs then happen at various authorized facilities.
The ongoing work involves the removal, inspection, repair, and reinstallation of the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G GTF (geared turbofan) jet engines on eighteen aircraft.
The engine issues impact both Hawaiian Airlines’ and Delta Air Lines’ narrow-body A321neo fleets used for Hawaii flights. Reuters mentioned that Hawaiian (together with Spirit and JetBlue) “have the largest exposure to the GTF problem.”
Hawaii flights were temporarily eliminated on at least three routes last year.
1. Paused Lihue-Oakland service from Sept. 6 through Dec. 14, 2023.
2. Suspended, Honolulu to San Jose on Saturdays, and San Jose to Honolulu on Mondays, as well as service between Kahului and San Jose on Sundays from Sept. 9, 2023 through Jan. 8, 2024.
3. Also stopped its Kahului-Las Vegas flight for a period last summer.
Which Hawaiian Air flights are being removed this time?
76 flights from Oakland to Kahului are off-schedule.
Starting March 10 and continuing through May 24, there will be no flights from Oakland to Maui. Those are set to resume daily starting May 25. Fares will start from $100 each way on the planned resumption of service.
Usually, flight 23 departs Oakland at 7 a.m. and arrives on Maui at 10:25 a.m. Following resumption, it is scheduled to leave at 7 a.m. and arrive at 9:20 (factoring in Daylight Savings Time).
75 flights from Maui back to Oakland are off-schedule.
Starting March 9 and continuing through May 23, there will be no nonstop flights from Maui to Oakland. Those will also resume daily beginning May 24, when fares will also start at $100 each way.
Normally, flight 24 departs Maui at 1:55 p.m. and arrives in Oakland at 8:55 p.m. Following its resumption, the scheduled departure is changed to 3:45 p.m., with mainland arrival at 11:45 p.m.
The Oakland route has operated regularly since 2010. So what happened?
The article’s lead photo may represent the most likely scenario based on what we know and what we saw yesterday at the Hawaiian Airlines’ hangar in Honolulu. That was an Airbus A321neo with one of its engines removed.
In addition, the route is highly competitive and low fares with strong competition from Southwest Airlines. With fares starting at just $100 each way following resumption, it is not a break-even proposition regarding what it costs the airline to provide the service. Thus, the most likely cause for the flight suspension, is a combination of these two factors.
What are your thoughts on sudden flight changes like this?
Here’s why we aren’t flying Hawaiian anymore. Our flight from Oakland to Hilo via Honolulu Monday 3/4 was cancelled less than 24 hours before flight time. No reason given but the flight inbound to Oakland was cancelled too so that would have been the plane we would have used. I looked on flightradar24 and the plane in question was used on another flight so in my mind it doesn’t look like a malfunction but more like a business decision. They offered flying the next day or wanted to know if we could fly from another airport. Some flights offered were 12 hours and 3 planes. Everything was refunded but that’s it. No sorry, no discounts no points. This is the second time we had problems like this.
Simple fact is you can come up with stories like that about all the airlines. Don’t have to belabor all the many SWA problems. The big department store airlines (DAL,AMR,UAL) service has certainly gone downhill. Not to mention both plane manufacturers. Boeing or Airbus? People pick one and throw stones at the other. Welcome to the new world order where everything has degraded, or appears to anyway thanks to the internet. I’ll still choose Hawaiian or Alaska as the best service to Hawaii and I said that long ago agreeing with Jeff and Rob when they made that point.
Same issue here. Cancelled our SFO to Maui flight for 3/23 late afternoon after we had checked in and paid for bags. I had booked 4 months prior with miles and had to shell out $5,800 in unexpected cost and split the family up to get there. No reason given, no accountability.
Oh. I do not like sudden change. Consistency is king.I travel to Hawaii enough and never used their airline yet. It is more pricy then Southwest. They seem dedicated but in the aviation world who ever fails someone else takes over. Its always been a rollercoaster.
I have noticed Alaska Airlines has dropped a lot of their nonstop flights out of San Jose, Ca to Maui. We have been flying that route every summer for several years. When I called they just said it depends on the time of year. I asked about a couple of other times and it was the same. The nonstop was only a couple of times a week. What happened?
HA cancelled our flight on Tuesday February 13, 2024 at LAX to Kona. Of course the runway in Kona was being repaired. However, we got mixed responses from the desk agents. Some said it was mechanical others said it was the runway. They said there were no flights from the Westcoast to and airport in the state of Hawaii. How could this be the case? We tried the following day and Again… HA said there are no flights. They ended up switching us to United the following day. That’s 48 hours stuck in LA. Made me sour!
I suspect a clue is in the arrival of the Dreamliner. HA will be focusing less on high density, low yield markets into more premium international and mainland destinations. Safe to say the brand will always be a major player in the west coast market, but the greatest opportunities lie in the new destinations the 787 opens up.
Just a quick note:
In response to your “Choice #2” question.. Hawaiian Airlines have 18 Airbus “neos” in the fleet which are currently involved in this Airbus Quagmire.
-A Hui Hou
It’s a good thing that I hardly ever travel outside of Hawaii or even go to a neighbor island these days. Prices are higher and too many fees to whack you in the wallet no matter what airline you fly. Plus you have questionable aircraft safety issues… A 321 Neo (bad engines) and shoddy built 737-Max’s (computer problems, blown fake door)… hmmm… Boeing 717 seems to be the most reliable but that is getting long in the tooth with probably thousands of take off an landing cycles since 2001. Safer to just stay home.
Unfortunately HA is not the only airline cutting flights to OGG. AS has cut daily LAX-OGG-LAX down to only once weekly on Saturdays only thru June at least. Before 2024 this roundtrip ran daily.
$175! We left OGG on 2/16 1145pm to get diverted to HNL at 2/17 220am. They booked me on UA to SFO @ 8am. Arrived in SFO @4Pm only to leave on AS @9Pm to arrive into LAS @1130pm… 24 hrs later. My flt back to OGG was on 2/19 @ 11am
$175 I don’t think so