When we take a breath and think this nonsense is behind us, we are surprised. Such is the case this week. Hawaii flight delays are off and running again, but with some big changes to who’s running late and what the causes may now include. You’re in for a surprise on this one. Before you page down to read what eBay has to do with this, here’s some background information.
Hawaii flight delays: Who’s running late now?
Things are ever-changing on Hawaii flight delays, and there’s some good news and some bad news on that front. First, Honolulu still takes the brunt of the problems, partly due to the major runway closure continuing well into 2023. Maui doesn’t fall far behind in delays, while the other Hawaii airports tend to do better. Here’s the case in point yesterday. We’re going to switch from the number of flight delays by each airline to the percentage of flight delays using FlightAware as our source.
Honolulu flight delays – December 13, 2022
- American Airlines – 33% of its flights delayed
- Alaska Airlines – 23% of its flights delayed
- Delta Airlines – 12% of its flights delayed
- Mokulele Airlines – 13% of its flights delayed
- Hawaiian Airlines – 17% of its flights delayed
- Southwest Airlines – 24% of its flights delayed
- United Airlines – 19% of its flights delayed
Maui flight delays – December 13, 2022
- American Airlines – 30% of its flights delayed
- Alaska Airlines – 43% of its flights delayed
- Hawaiian Airlines – 14% of its flights delayed
- Mokulele Airlines – 18% of its flights delayed
- Southwest – 28% of its flights delayed
What’s changed since we last reported on Hawaii flight delays?
We’ve noted that the percentage of delays by airlines has changed significantly. Hawaiian Airlines has been able to greatly reduce its percentage of delays flights. While delays at times represented more than 40% of their flights, they now report less than half that number. They did this by both increasing their staffing and adjusting their schedule during the construction.
In October, we reported the following Hawaii flight delays: At Honolulu, “70 Hawaiian Air flight departures and arrivals delayed. That represented 40% of all of their flights… Southwest had 6 flights delayed there, representing 7% of their flights.” While at Maui, “Hawaiian had 47% of their flights delayed.”
What’s the Cause of Hawaii flight delays?
We’ve previously listed the underlying reasons as including the following:
- Gate holds at HNL related to airport and traffic issues.
- The prolonged closure of a runway at Honolulu.
- Inadequate staffing.
eBay For airliner parts? One airline says they looked there for spares.
Some airlines seem to have ongoing problems with supply chain issues, even though we may have mistakenly thought those problems were over. One Hawaii airline said this week that this is still a big problem, while another told us that this was instead a problem during the pandemic. So which is it?
Mokulele Airlines, owned by Southern Airways, which has a significant share of delayed Hawaii flights, said that they are still having issues with parts that are resulting in delayed flights.
At one point, they reported being worried about the lack of oil filters and looked to eBay, where they were $400 apiece. They added that they were concerned about finding parts from tires to oil. That did strike us as unusual for an airline (Southern Airways) that has a fleet of 50 planes.
We reached out to Hawaiian Airlines, which had been quoted regarding Mokulele’s problems. Spokesperson Alex Da Silva, Director of External Communications, told us, “Yes, we’ve had supply chain issues – many companies – during the pandemic. We’ve been working with our suppliers to prevent disruptions to our operations.”
Mokulele’s excessive flight delays started in October.
Our information, however, suggests Mokulele experienced significant delays during the summer as well. However, the airline said that supply chain shortages during the past 60 days have impacted their operations.
They made no mention of the runway closure at HNL, which impacts all airlines using that airport.
Managing Hawaii flight delays:
1. How has your flight been performing recently? Check using FlightAware or other service days ahead of your flight to get a notion of how the flight has been operating recently.
2. Using FlightAware flight tracking, check if your flight is scheduled to be on time, and check the incoming plane’s status. That’s a big tip-off. Click the link “where is my plane.”
3. Plan on some delays, whether that’s scheduling things after your flight or any food required while waiting. Honolulu airport has a lack of food choices, and limited hours of operation, as does the entire airport system, due to the state DOT’s management of its concessionaire. Take special note of the lack of food in the Honolulu Airport Mauka Concourse.
My wife and I will be traveling from Seattle to Hilo in February, returning in March. Would you suggest flying to LA and taking United’s nonstop to Hilo instead of flying Hawaiian via Honolulu, or is LAX also a mess?
Thank you for any suggestions about the smoothest way to fly between Seattle and Hilo.
Hi Tim.
Looking just now, the best price and probably most comfort would be Hawaiian from Seattle to Maui on their wide-body, then direct to Hilo. Good connection. There is no longer a nonstop from LA to ITO.
Aloha.
Aloha guys – Mokulele isn’t impacted by the partial closure of 8L in HNL for a few reasons. 1) Nearly all of their flights are operated VFR (Visual Flight Rules) and therefore aren’t subject to the flow delays (gate holds) into HNL as the other airlines who operate IFR (Instrument Flight Rules). 2) They are able to use runway 4L for landing – which is typically not available to inbound IFR aircraft. In some ways, the partial closure of 8L has helped Mokulele, as their primary departure runway (8L) is largely left just to them.