Hawaii is attracting keen interest from various markets and airlines.
This has been made clear at the recently-concluded 2014 Hawaii Tourism
Conference when Mesa Air Group's go! interisland subsidiary said that it
was becoming rather too difficult to compete with the Hawaii’s flagship
carrier Hawaiian Airlines in the interisland market.
Hawaii currently has the most diverse airline network. This has prompted
numerous airlines and markets to show keen interest in Hawaii. This has
also made the State of Hawaii less vulnerable to significant swings in
the travel market.
Media reports quoted Brad DiFiore, cofounder and managing partner of
Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consulting, which operates interisland go!
airline, as saying that the seat capacity to Hawaii from North America
has increased 19 percent over a decade. Interisland air travel has
significantly lowered than what it was 10 years ago despite the fact
that revenue and average fares continue to be higher. DiFiore however
said that the seats are likely to return with the growing travel demand
now and Hawaii also proving to be a big market for airlines.
DiFiore said that for an outsider like Mesa Air Group's go! interisland
subsidiary competing with a homegrown airline like Hawaiian Airlines is
rather difficult as it has been proved now. He said that Hawaiian
Airlines had 82 percent market share while go! had only 9 percent share
for the interisland market.
Apart from Hawaiian Airlines, other carriers such as Alaska Airlines,
Allegiant Air, Air Canada’s Rogue, Cebu Pacific, Virgin America and
Jetstar have also made forays and focusing on flights to Honolulu.