Airline capacity on flights to Hawai'i is expected to fall to 1.98 million seats from September through November, a 2.1 percent decline from the same period last year, according to a new report from the state.

While there are some signs that the state's slumping tourism industry has begun to stabilize, the report from the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism suggests that any recovery will be slow in coming.

Domestic scheduled service to Hawai'i for the three-month period is expected to drop to 1.38 million air seats, a 3.6 percent decline over the same time the year before.

Seats from the U.S. West, the largest single source of visitors to Hawai'i, are expected to fall 2.4 percent during the period to 1.18 million. U.S. East air seats are forecast to fall 10.3 percent to 205,289.

One bright spot in the report was a projection that air seats from Japan will increase after significant weakness in the Japan market so far this year. DBEDT is forecasting a 3.5 percent increase in Japan air seats to 398,930 from the same three-month period a year earlier.

Through the first seven months of this year, Japanese visitor arrivals were down nearly 11 percent from the same period in 2008. Japan has traditionally been considered a key market for Hawai'i's tourism industry because as a group, Japanese outspend other visitors and are more likely to make a return trip.

Overall, international air seats are projected to increase by 1.5 percent to 596,204, according to the report.