Hawaiian Airlines adding more California flights

By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer

In one of the first indications of how Hawaiian Airlines will seek to compete after the break-up of its proposed merger with Aloha Airlines, the carrier announced yesterday it will add two California routes to its service, beginning in June.

The announcement — less than a week after failure of the merger plan — comes as both airlines struggle to regroup, compete and survive during the industry's troubled times, including continuing weakness in Hawai'i's interisland market.

Hawaiian's two newly announced routes are daily nonstop service between Honolulu and Sacramento, and Honolulu and Ontario, set to start June 7.

The expansion will give Hawaiian 12 daily nonstop flights between the West Coast and Hawai'i, including recently announced plans to start new nonstop service to Maui from San Francisco and Los Angeles in June, and daily nonstop service that began earlier this month between Maui and Seattle.

"The steady improvement in West Coast demand makes this the right time to begin the next phase of Hawaiian's expansion plan," Hawaiian vice chairman and chief executive officer Paul Casey said in a statement.

Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Keoni Wagner said Sacramento and Ontario have been on the airline's list of potential new markets "for some time," but the collapse of the merger last weekend accelerated the decision to go ahead with the new service.

"These cities were in our plans and were to become part of the plans for the merged carrier," Wagner said. "But without the merger, the company felt it important to bring those plans forward and better benefit from the summer peak season in front of us."

The acceleration of such plans may herald the beginning of heightened competition between Aloha and Hawaiian as each seeks to quickly gain footing in the post-merger landscape.

In announcing the proposed merger three months ago, executives with both airlines said they needed to merge because conditions in the industry — and in the interisland market in particular — had made it impossible for them to survive separately.

Expansion in the Mainland market had been a key part of the plan for the newly merged carrier.

Both Aloha and Hawaiian officials immediately began meeting with employees and others after the merger failed to craft plans for moving forward, but few details have been released.

Yesterday, Wagner said Hawaiian's expansion to Ontario and Sacramento makes it the only carrier providing nonstop service to Hawai'i from those two airports.

Danny Casey, president of the Hawai'i chapter of the American Society of Travel Agents, described the new service by Hawaiian as a "good move."

Demand for the flights is likely coming from the West Coast rather than from Hawai'i residents, although Hawai'i residents may choose the Ontario flight for its proximity to Disneyland, he said.

For Hawai'i residents, the Sacramento flight provides an alternative for those bound for Northern California who want to avoid flying to San Francisco, Casey said.

Reach Susan Hooper at 525-8064 or shooper@honoluluadvertiser.com.