WAIKAPU, Hawaii (AP) — The president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines says more flights could be headed to Maui over the next few years as the company expands its fleet and operations.
Mark Dunkerley spoke at a Maui Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Monday and outlined what future developments for the company could mean for the island, Maui News reported.
Hawaiian Airlines will receive its first Airbus A321neo, which is “slightly smaller than our wide-bodies,” next year that will allow the company to service nonstop flights between the Neighbor Islands and new routes in the smaller mainland markets.
In 2013, Hawaiian Airlines announced it had entered into an agreement with Airbus to acquire 16 new A321neo aircraft between 2017 and 2020, with rights to purchase an additional nine aircraft. The order has a combined value of roughly $2.8 billion.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time until we get enough of (these aircraft) for Maui to really experience the difference, but as we look to the future, we think Maui’s going to be one of the main beneficiaries of this substantial new investment in aircraft that we’ve made,” Dunkerley said.
He also announced Monday that Ohana by Hawaiian, the company’s commuter airline, would be adding a twice-daily route from Kapalua to Honolulu.
Hawaiian Airlines is waiting for the state to install a new set of precision approach path indicator lights at the Kapalua airport. The Federal Aviation Administration would then test the lighting during one of its unscheduled trips to Hawaii made twice a year.
“It could be up to six months, I guess, waiting for the FAA, or it could be the next week,” said Dunkerley. “It just takes a lot of time to get some of these basic construction things done.”
As Hawaiian expands its flight service, Dunkerley said, the company is trying to relieve some of the pressure on its Honolulu hub by continuing to invest in Maui.
USA Today
WAIKAPU – A Honolulu-to-Kapalua route and more direct Mainland flights could be headed Maui’s way over the next few years as Hawaiian Airlines expands its fleet and operations, said Mark Dunkerley, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines and its parent company, Hawaiian Holdings Inc.
Speaking at a Maui Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the King Kamehameha Golf Club on Monday, Dunkerley shared updates on the future of the airline and what the developments could mean for Maui.
One of the big changes on the horizon is the acquisition of new aircraft. In 18 months, Hawaiian Airlines will receive its first Airbus A321neo, an airplane “slightly smaller than our wide-bodies” that will allow the company to service nonstop flights between the Neighbor Islands and smaller Mainland markets not yet on the airline’s routes.
In 2013, Hawaiian Airlines announced the signing of a definitive purchase agreement with Airbus to acquire 16 new A321neo aircraft between 2017 and 2020, with rights to purchase an additional nine aircraft. Hawaiian did not disclose the terms of the purchase agreements, but the order has a combined list-price value of approximately $2.8 billion if all purchase rights are exercised.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time until we get enough of (these aircraft) for Maui to really experience the difference, but as we look to the future, we think Maui’s going to be one of the main beneficiaries of this substantial new investment in aircraft that we’ve made,” Dunkerley said.
He added that these aircraft will be “the most fuel-efficient airplane of its kind capable of flying between Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast.”
At the January 2015 luncheon, Dunkerley announced that ‘Ohana by Hawaiian, the company’s commuter airline, would be adding a twice-daily Kapalua-to-Honolulu route. At that time, he anticipated service to be running by mid-2015, but Dunkerley said that the airline is currently waiting for the state to install a new set of precision approach path indicator lights at the Kapalua airport. The Federal Aviation Administration then has to bring its own aircraft from the Mainland to test the lighting, an unscheduled trip that the FAA makes to Hawaii twice a year.
“It could be up to six months, I guess, waiting for the FAA, or it could be the next week,” he said. “It just takes a lot of time to get some of these basic construction things done.”
In the meantime, the airline is continuing major growth. Over the last two years, Hawaiian Airlines has achieved record passenger numbers, surpassing 10 million for the first time in 2014 and then topping those numbers by nearly 500,000 in 2015, according to a company news release.
“It took us 38 years to get to the first 10 million,” Dunkerley said. “Now we do 10 million in a year.”
As the airline’s service expands, the company is trying to relieve some of the pressure on its Honolulu hub by continuing to invest in its Maui hub, Dunkerley said. However, in response to a question about whether Kahului Airport’s facilities were adequate for Hawaiian Airlines’ plans, Dunkerley said it “clearly isn’t.”
He explained that the airline has had difficulty getting enough gates through which to run connecting flights. While he said he understood that the airport couldn’t please every airline, he said that having adequate gates would be crucial to Hawaiian Airlines’ investment in Kahului in the future.
“If you value having Hawaiian Airlines as the hometown carrier . . . we have to be able to connect passengers,” he said. “To be able to do that, we have to have the gate facilities.”
Last spring, the airline ran into issues at Kahului Airport not related to infrastructure. In two separate incidents nearly two weeks apart, Hawaiian Airlines flights had to make emergency landings on Maui. On May 1, shortly after takeoff from Kahului, a California-bound flight had to turn around after an air circulation machine malfunctioned and a foul odor filled the cabin. On May 12, a flight from Honolulu to Kona made an emergency landing at Kahului after a “left engine surge” sent smoke through the cabin.
The first situation resulted in two injuries; the second had none.
Dunkerley said Monday that crew members responded well to the emergency situations, and he felt that no changes needed to be made to aircraft or airline procedures.
“The return and the evacuation of the aircraft was a textbook case,” he said.
Overall, Hawaiian Airlines has received high safety and on-time ratings. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the airline had one of the country’s best on-time records, with more than 87 percent of flights arriving on time from January to October last year. Safety and product rating website airlineratings.com recently named the company one the world’s top 20 safest airlines.
When it comes to competition, the landscape continues to change. Virgin America launched service between the Mainland and Maui in December. In recent weeks, billionaire Larry Ellison has announced plans to sell a controlling interest in his interisland carrier, Island Air. Dunkerley said that he’s not sure if the sale will affect Hawaiian or ‘Ohana in any way, but stressed that his airline continues to stay competitive in the market.
“We set our prices independent of everybody else,” he said. “What our competitors do does impact us at the margin, but we’re pretty comfortable where we are.”
Maui News