Hawaiian Airlines (HA, Honolulu) is in talks with Boeing (BOE, Washington National) regarding the schedule for deliveries of its ten forthcoming B787-9s, which were due to start arriving in March 2021, Managing Director (Cargo) Brad Matheny told The Loadstar.
"Expanding the fleet and adding new aircraft wouldn't be in our best interest now. We’re in discussions with Boeing about the delivery dates. We're dedicated to that aircraft. That is our long-haul aircraft of the future. It's just timing-wise," Matheny said.
The airline has ten B787-9s on order, including five directly from Boeing and five from lessors, as well as a further ten options.
Matheny added that despite relatively stable demand for cargo within Hawaii, the airline was "not in a hurry" to take delivery of its fourth ATR72-200(F), due to be operated by Empire Airlines (EM, Coeur d'Alene) under a cargo partnership Ohana. The fourth aircraft, N816HC (msn 389), was ferried to the United States in early March 2020 and was subsequently repositioned from San Antonio International to Coeur d'Alene on June 2, 2020, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows.
Besides relatively busy intra-state cargo operations using dedicated freighters, Hawaiian Airlines also saw demand for cargo on the Asia-US routes, both to Hawaii and to the mainland. For this reason, the airline is deploying A330-200s on its few active routes to the US mainland, despite low passenger load factors.
"The A321-200neo is more efficient on the passenger side, but cargo is the big piece," Matheny underlined, adding that thanks to cargo, the flights were posting a "slight profit margin".
Hawaiian will likely struggle with low passenger demand through at least the end of July as the archipelago will remain effectively closed for most out-of-state visitors until July 31.
