When Alaska announced this week that Hawaiian’s Boeing 717 fleet would be replaced by Boeing 737-800s, at first we pictured exactly what most readers probably did. A different airplane would begin showing up on interisland flights, bringing faster Wi-Fi, more premium seats, and additional cargo space.
Then we stopped and looked at each other, because we’ve spent many years flying these Alaska Boeing 737-800s between Hawaii and the mainland. These aren’t aircraft Alaska is buying for Hawaii. They’re airplanes already in the airline’s fleet that will be refurbished, repainted in Hawaiian colors, based in Honolulu, and assigned their new job.
That sent us looking for things both the announcement and other articles never mentioned, including how old they are. The answer wasn’t in the press release.
These weren’t unusual replacement jets waiting somewhere for their Hawaii debut. They were the familiar Alaska airplanes we had boarded, flown, photographed, reviewed, and then watched gradually give way to newer MAX aircraft on Hawaii routes.
We realized we’d been sitting in Hawaiian’s future airplane all along. We simply did not know what was to come, and they didn’t say Hawaiian on the side at the time.
A traveler who has flown Alaska to Hawaii over the years has a good chance of having flown the same aircraft type too, although Alaska hasn’t said which individual airplanes from its 59-plane Boeing 737-800 fleet will ultimately move to Hawaiian. The announcement describing Hawaiian’s future fleet made the airplanes sound modern, premium, reliable, connected, and ready for a career over Hawaii.
Alaska’s own annual report lists the Boeing 737-800 fleet age.
Page 31 of Alaska Air Group’s 2025 annual report lists 59 Boeing 737-800s at an average age of 17.7 years at the close of 2025. That’s the fleet pool Hawaiian will draw from.
The fleet averages roughly 18 years old today, and, by 2028, when the Hawaiian transition is planned to begin, the average reaches about 20, and growing.
Alaska hasn’t identified which individual airplanes will move into Hawaii service. Overall, Alaska’s public fleet page tells the story differently, reporting an average age of about 10 years for its entire Boeing 737 fleet. But that blended figure combines every variant, including nearly 100 MAX 9s and MAX 8s that are far newer than the Boeing 737-800s.
Honolulu to Maui 737 flights begin this October.
Nobody has to wait until 2028 to see this start taking shape. Beginning in October, Alaska will operate three daily Honolulu to Kahului round trips using an Alaska-branded Boeing 737.
Those flights use Alaska crews because the two workforces are not combined yet. AFA-CWA says the flight attendant groups cannot merge until a joint contract is ratified and the seniority list is accepted, and management does not receive that list before ratification. The pilots follow the same sequence, and the pace of it has already produced some pushback from Hawaiian workers.
Alaska says the Hawaiian-branded Boeing 737-800 fleet will eventually be based in Honolulu and flown by Hawaii-based crews, with the transition beginning in 2028. Spot a 737 at a Hawaii island gate this fall and you’re seeing Alaska equipment getting ready to do the job the Boeing 717 has handled for 25 years.
Alaska’s second quarter loss explains the 737-800 decision for Hawaii.
Alaska Air Group reported a second-quarter 2026 GAAP net loss of $76 million, or $0.68 per share, on a GAAP pretax margin of negative 5.3%. Its adjusted net loss reached $102 million, or $0.92 per share.
An airline posting numbers like that isn’t shopping for new narrowbodies for Hawaii’s shortest routes. Alaska already owns these airplanes, already maintains them, already has trained crews and available parts, and has years of operating experience with the type.
Refurbished airframes with updated interiors and Starlink are a legitimate answer for flights lasting around 30 minutes. Alaska knows the Boeing 737-800 better than any airplane it could have bought, and using aircraft already on the balance sheet is a defensible call for a company in that position.
The refreshed cabins and the free Starlink are real gains for travelers. What Alaska put in front of them was the interior, not the airframe underneath it.
Hawaiian Boeing 717 pilots are losing an airplane they loved.
Ask a Hawaiian pilot about the Boeing 717, and you get an answer you don’t get about most airplanes. It climbs quickly, handles short island sectors well, has been the reliable and time-proven backbone of Hawaiian’s operation for decades, and many pilots built their careers around it.
Nobody is going to talk about a Boeing 737-800 that way. It’s how BOH editor Jeff talks about the 1993 Porsche Carrera he kept in his garage. Newer cars are faster and arguably better in every measurable way, and none of that is why he kept it.
Alaska’s fleet page lists 19 Boeing 717s at an average age of 23.7 years as of January 2026, and Boeing stopped building the type in 2006. By the time the transition begins, those airplanes will be approaching 26 years in service, an endpoint we saw coming when we examined Hawaiian’s dwindling replacement options.
Boeing 717 flight cycles explain the Hawaii retirement.
Calendar age understates what Hawaiian’s Boeing 717s have endured. Each takeoff and landing adds structural stress. Alaska addressed cycles in its announcement. The release calls Neighbor Island flying uniquely demanding, with short segments, frequent daily cycles and salt air, and says the 737-800 has airframes and engines that can withstand it.
Hawaiian is known to work these airplanes through as many as 16 cycles a day on short flights, close to the most cycle-intensive flying anywhere. In our earlier examination of the aging Boeing 717 fleet and FAA concern, we reported that the fleet had already moved beyond its original design life as measured in cycles, by additional maintenance.
A federal airworthiness directive effective January 2, 2026 requires repetitive inspections of the nose landing gear upper lock link on every Boeing 717 in the country. It followed a 2023 Delta Boeing 717 landing at Charlotte with its nose gear retracted.
The Boeing 737-800 looks very different by comparison. Alaska’s aircraft have generally spent their lives flying longer mainland and transpacific sectors, often completing four or five cycles a day rather than a dozen or more.
They may average about 18 calendar years of age at present, but they’ve accumulated only a fraction of the punishing short-flight cycles associated with Hawaiian’s Boeing 717s. By the measure that is related to structural fatigue, the replacement is the far younger airplane. By the calendar-age measure missing from Alaska’s announcement, it isn’t that new.
What Hawaii passengers gain and give up on the 737-800.
Depending on configuration, the Boeing 737-800 seats 159 or 161 passengers, compared with the Boeing 717’s 128. Hawaiian’s current aircraft carries 8 First Class, 17 Extra Comfort, and 103 Main Cabin seats, a layout we examined when the middle-seats doubling first surfaced.
The current 737-800 layout has 16 First Class, 36 Premium Class, and 109 Main Cabin. First Class doubles, and 17 Extra Comfort seats become 36 Premium Class.
Starlink comes free, and the airplane offers more cargo room for everything from surfboards and golf clubs to other baggage. Power and device holders come at every seat, which the 717 never had. But on an under 25-minute flight to Kahului, some travelers will notice the middle seats being added while others will focus more on the newly added free Wi-Fi.
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
There will be plenty more announcements between now and 2028, and the numbers behind them will keep sitting in documents almost nobody opens. We open them. Subscribe to our email list for free. It’s where we post our findings before the travel press catches up.
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I’m betting that Alaska is looking at these aircraft as a stopgap – they’re too old to look at as a long term solution.
If they can solve the money problem then they can look at new aircraft for these routes – and they’ll also have seen if a slightly larger sardine can makes sense from a number of passengers standpoint.
That might help them decide if a Max7, Max8, or some completely different airframe makes sense starting in the mid-2030s.
I may have missed the coverage on this site. So, forgive me if this is repetitious.
The Alaska/Hawaiian move to 737-800s is not without precedent. Aloha Airlines flew 737s for years. From the old noisy 737-100s up to the 737-700s in their fleet at the time that they went out of business in 2008. They are great planes. The airline will need to alter their operations to make the best and hopefully profitable use of these airframes.
Yes, they need to be profitable. Safety, reliability, and a good customer experience cannot be achieved if there is not a positive cash flow.