Hawaiian Airlines to gain as Delta readies to cut Japan flights

Hawaiian Airlines seems to be emerging as the biggest beneficiary as Delta Air Lines is now readying to cut its capacity between Hawaii and Japan.

The growth in the Asia-Pacific region just few years ago provided great opportunity to Hawaiian Airlines to flourish. The airline had by early 2013 started reaping the fruits of the growth and earned nearly a third of its revenue from its international routes.

The Asia-Pacific markets, particularly Japan and Australia, failed to perform remarkably and were short of expectations during the past three years. The dramatic strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the Japanese yen and Australian dollar had badly affected the revenues of Hawaiian Airlines.

Feeling the pinch even Delta Air Lines, one of the major operators on Japan-Hawaii routes, has decided to make big flight cuts this fall in order to boost its own profitability. The rival Delta’s decision has given Hawaiian Airlines yet another reason to perform well with reduced competition.

Hawaiian Airlines is presently operating 17 weekly flights to Japanese destinations, when compared to 11 weekly flights to Australian cities and five or fewer weekly flights to each of its other international routes. The airline is currently operating two daily flights from Honolulu to Tokyo and Osaka. Most of its revenue earnings, which accounts for about 10 percent of its total revenue, comes from these two daily Japanese routes.

Delta Air Lines has announced that it will "downgauge" its Osaka-Honolulu route to a Boeing 767 in early October 2015, thus cutting its capacity by 40 percent on the route. This means that the airline will be offering 226 daily seats instead of earlier 376 seats.