New Hawaii Regional Airline

[Dan Roman]

Dan,

My question is how much of your inter-island flying is connections from OTHER airlines? If UAL (who now has CAL in the stable) decided to bring 10 Dash-8-400s over from Colgan for example, and flew them for cheap carrying their own connections (from SFO, LAX, ORD, IAH, DEN, EWR, GUM, NRT, etc), would that affect your business? I know they already have nonstops from LAX and SFO to all of the islands, but the overflow or connections from the other hubs could help fill the planes, or allow their passengers to see more than one island on their trip. United/CAL has the money to do it, and the planes to fly it (Dash-8-400s have plenty of seats to offset the costs compared to a CRJ). If anyone can afford it and do it, I would say UAL could, and they have a NRT flight too that could allow Japan connections.


Bye Bye---General Lee

Can't give you an exact number but probably not the high. UAL flies direct now to the outer islands. But if they did try to set up their own feed with Turboprops, they would put themselves at a marketing disadvantage as most people prefer our 717's (any fare that gets put out by the competition will obviously be matched) United's product would be a UAL flight connecting to a turboprop on the other side of the airport vs our relatively seemless operation of connecting to a 717, not a very good marketing plan on UAL's part. Everyone they compete with would have connections to our 717's while they would offer the turboprops. They would also be spending a lot of money just to compete with their own direct outer island flights.

 

[slatsnfive]

Can't give you an exact number but probably not the high. UAL flies direct now to the outer islands. But if they did try to set up their own feed with Turboprops, they would put themselves at a marketing disadvantage as most people prefer our 717's (any fare that gets put out by the competition will obviously be matched) United's product would be a UAL flight connecting to a turboprop on the other side of the airport vs our relatively seemless operation of connecting to a 717, not a very good marketing plan on UAL's part. Everyone they compete with would have connections to our 717's while they would offer the turboprops. They would also be spending a lot of money just to compete with their own direct outer island flights.

Dan Roman,

Well analyzed and stated. My guess at this point is that it is just a strong rumor.

Appreciate the insight.

slatsnfive

 

[Dan Roman]

Thanks.
It's a common misconception that Hawaiian is somehow vulnerable to competition because they are a relatively small legacy. The reality is that as long as people want to fly to Hawaii, Hawaiian will always have a marketing advantage serving Hawaii and fortunately they are now very well run operationally. There will always be plenty of competition and plenty of ways to get to Hawaii. Hawaiian has kept it simple by concentrating on flying widebodies to cities they can fill up with people that want to go to Hawaii on Hawaiian Air for their vacation. As far as inter-island goes, you just have to look at how poorly Go is doing to get a sense of how trying to get market share by selling cheap tickets works.

 

[IBNAV8R]

Well analyzed and stated. My guess at this point is that it is just a strong rumor.

I hope it's just a rumor.

Having spent a significant part of my formative years in the islands, I was constantly indoctrinated with ideas of "kokua" (to help one another) and "Aloha" (affection, peace, compassion, mercy, love, hello, goodbye, etc.). That a flea-bitten outside operation like GO (with absolutely no feed or code-share) was able to take down a home-grown island carrier (albeit in a weak position already) was a very bitter pill to swallow.

The point is that type of aircraft and airline or "home-grown" loyalty are both trumped by price.

 

[islandairDHC8]

Well....the next few months will be very interesting... I'm told that Pen Air from Alaska will be wet leasing a Saab 340 to Island Air for one year while Island Air crews get trained on ATR 72's. If this is true about the Q400's, I could see another airline or two leaving the market. The past has shown that the Islands can realistically support only 2 airlines.

 

[Hikoushi]

It's all bulls#!t.

 

[sniper]

Is there much icing in the Hawaiian chain?

Sorry I forgot ASA swallows

 

[A-V-8]

Is there much icing in the Hawaiian chain?

Friend of mine at Mesa hit some out there after being there for around 18 months or so. They literally tried to sound it out. I C E. Integrated ..... Engine. Integral Control..... They opened the CFM and while reading out loud the F.O. said the word "Ice" and the both shouted "Ice" and turned it on. Laughter ensued for the remainder of the leg which was about 10 minutes. Funny how we forget things.

 

[SPDBRD747400]

Sorry I forgot ASA swallows

Go find your hole, sniper