Hawaiian Airlines is one of the more severely impacted airlines as they have a number of flights going to the disaster stricken region of Japan and they were initially under a tsunami threat as well. The current flight cancellations and rescheduling is just the tip of the iceberg as far as how deeply this will affect the short and long term plans of Hawaiian. They initially had only a few cancellations going into Japan but as time wore on the problems have only grown and they now are faced with how to best handle the situation. Not only is this a severe economic problem for Hawaiian Airlines, the state of Hawaii will be affected as well. Japanese are the second largest group of tourists coming to Hawaii, behind Americans. This will result in both short and long term consequences for the airline and the state as a whole.
Hawaiian has seen a short time spike in travel from Japan which is due to the number of people evacuating the island as fears rise over a nuclear disaster. This spike will likely last for less than a month and then it will be a true test of the company’s strength on how they proceed. With former competitors like Aloha and ATA going out of business in 2008 there is reason for concern. However, Hawaiian has long been known for their top ranking as an on time airline with a solid reputation of superior customer service.
This will certainly help with the efforts to weather this disaster. In the long term it is expected that the number of tourists flying from Japan will make a drastic drop and will not recover until the country recovers from this horrendous disaster. Hawaiian Airlines have recently made a few announcements regarding future plans for the airline as a whole.
Hawaiian has signed a deal with Korean Airlines to merge the two companies existing frequent flier programs. This should promote Hawaiian’s business in the region and perhaps offset a small amount of the business that will be lost. In another recent announcement Hawaiian Airlines is going forward with plans to start flying to Osaka, Japan sometime in July. This seems like a bold statement being made by Hawaiian. Maybe they are trying to convey the message to the Japanese that they are not going anywhere and will stick things out with Japan no matter what.
Either way it is a calculated business risk that could play out in a number of ways. In the near future it seems that Hawaiian is banking on keeping their normally scheduled flights to Japan and try to weather the oncoming storm. We will see what unfolds and hopefully they will not have the same fate as their former competitors Aloha and ATA.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.