Hawaiian Airlines mulling to expand its service to New Zealand

Hawaiian Airlines has indicated that it wants to expand its frequencies to New Zealand than before. The Honolulu-based carrier has been operating flights to Auckland for the past two years now and looking forward to increase the number of flights it is currently operating.

Mark Dunkerley, President and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, said, “The airline is offering services to Auckland for last two years and is weighing options to increase frequencies from the existing thrice weekly return flights.”

Dunkerley said that the airline is not immediately planning to expand its service but would certainly consider doing so in the long term. The traffic is continuing to grow on the route and the airline officials are giving a serious thought over this.

“Hawaiian Airline, which has shown tremendous growth around the Pacific Rim during the last five years, is showing profitability on the Auckland route,” said Dunkerley.

Hawaiian Airlines’ presence in New Zealand has helped it significantly to double its passenger traffic between Honolulu and Auckland. Taking cue from Hawaiian Airlines, even Air New Zealand has swung into action and rejigged its schedule by boosting its seasonal capacity and offering cheap airfares. Hawaiian Airlines is presently operating flights between Honolulu and Auckland with the help of a 294-seat Airbus A330 aircraft. During the peak school holiday season the flight on the route runs up to 90 percent full.

The airline recently announced that it is adding three new Airbus A330 aircrafts to its fleet in 2015. The airline wants to replace its two Boeing 767 aircrafts and wants to deploy one extra widebody aircraft to operate flights on its Pacific Rim network.