I saw on Airline Route that Delta has announced daily seasonal service from HNL to LAS from December 21-January 14. Haven't seen a schedule yet, though. I don't think they've ever done LAS nonstop before and this is an expansion of the seasonal service to HNL from SFO, PDX and the extra LAX service that started Christmas season of 2015 if I remember correctly. I flew the SFO and PDX nonstops once each and they were both completely full in all classes. It seems their seasonal services are doing very well to not only continue with longer operating periods (first year was only 2 weeks I think) but grow in scale. I wonder if they'd consider a seasonal SAN nonstop - then they'd be back in all the premerger NW stations on the west coast.

Fantastic routes for locals on both sides for quick trips back and forth. For all the hate it gets, the 737-900ER has allowed Delta to expand its footprint in the islands.

If they do this is, can probably pull a plane or frequency off a business route. Not too much business travel in that range anyway.

obelau24 wrote:

I saw on Airline Route that Delta has announced daily seasonal service from HNL to LAS from December 21-January 14. Haven't seen a schedule yet, though. I don't think they've ever done LAS nonstop before and this is an expansion of the seasonal service to HNL from SFO, PDX and the extra LAX service that started Christmas season of 2015 if I remember correctly. I flew the SFO and PDX nonstops once each and they were both completely full in all classes. It seems their seasonal services are doing very well to not only continue with longer operating periods (first year was only 2 weeks I think) but grow in scale. I wonder if they'd consider a seasonal SAN nonstop - then they'd be back in all the premerger NW stations on the west coast.

Fantastic routes for locals on both sides for quick trips back and forth. For all the hate it gets, the 737-900ER has allowed Delta to expand its footprint in the islands.

Well, its worth noting that the Airline Route tweet to which you refer mentions a 757 - not a 737-900ER.

https://twitter.com/Airlineroute/status ... 7718800384

Its a pretty short season. I wonder why they don't offer it a bit longer, perhaps 3-4X weekly instead of daily.

While I doubt DL spends too much energy watching Allegiant, I do believe this kicks in about the time Allegiant ends their Hawaii service from LAS.

Hawaiians call LAS the Ninth Island. There are many charters all year that cater to the Casinos. The California runs charters all year. I think it would work.

I wish UA would restart SAN and SNA (if better timed) to HNL. SAN is well within the range of the 739 and SNA could be flown with the reconfigured 73G. SNA administrators have been looking for an airline to restart Hawaii flights.

77H

77H wrote:

I wish UA would restart SAN and SNA (if better timed) to HNL. SAN is well within the range of the 739 and SNA could be flown with the reconfigured 73G. SNA administrators have been looking for an airline to restart Hawaii flights.

77H

If SNA management wants Hawaii flights, they would do better to try to convince all the NIMBYs in Orange County to let them extend the runway. AQ already proved the 73G isn't profitable to Hawaii, and the runway is too short for anything else to make it to the islands.

HAL

This is one of the reasons I like DL they do lots of P2P flying picking up low hanging fruit.

seasonal? It's a 24 day service to cover the holidays. Nothing more.

crownvic wrote:

While I doubt DL spends too much energy watching Allegiant, I do believe this kicks in about the time Allegiant ends their Hawaii service from LAS.

Allegiant has been out of the Hawaii market for about 6 months now.

Hawaii is a huge transient population. People (UH students, workers etc.) need to go home for the holidays. Hawaii locals need to go to Vegas for the new year. Sounds like a good use of spare capacity.

HAL wrote:

77H wrote:

I wish UA would restart SAN and SNA (if better timed) to HNL. SAN is well within the range of the 739 and SNA could be flown with the reconfigured 73G. SNA administrators have been looking for an airline to restart Hawaii flights.

77H

If SNA management wants Hawaii flights, they would do better to try to convince all the NIMBYs in Orange County to let them extend the runway. AQ already proved the 73G isn't profitable to Hawaii, and the runway is too short for anything else to make it to the islands.

HAL

Where pray tell would they expand it to even if the NIMBYs would allow it? It seems to me SNA is pretty well boxed in by development on all sides.

Also, it was my understanding that AQ's flights to SNA, and the mainland at large were profitable. I thought it was the interisland operation that helped cause AQ's ultimate demise as a passenger airline.

77H

77H wrote:

HAL wrote:

77H wrote:

I wish UA would restart SAN and SNA (if better timed) to HNL. SAN is well within the range of the 739 and SNA could be flown with the reconfigured 73G. SNA administrators have been looking for an airline to restart Hawaii flights.

77H

If SNA management wants Hawaii flights, they would do better to try to convince all the NIMBYs in Orange County to let them extend the runway. AQ already proved the 73G isn't profitable to Hawaii, and the runway is too short for anything else to make it to the islands.

HAL

Where pray tell would they expand it to even if the NIMBYs would allow it? It seems to me SNA is pretty well boxed in by development on all sides.

Also, it was my understanding that AQ's flights to SNA, and the mainland at large were profitable. I thought it was the interisland operation that helped cause AQ's ultimate demise as a passenger airline.

77H

Not to mention, on both pointy ends of the runway, arent there freeways boxing in any expansion?

covert wrote:

crownvic wrote:

While I doubt DL spends too much energy watching Allegiant, I do believe this kicks in about the time Allegiant ends their Hawaii service from LAS.

Allegiant has been out of the Hawaii market for about 6 months now.

According to their website, they still do LAS - HNL twice per week.

covert wrote:

crownvic wrote:

While I doubt DL spends too much energy watching Allegiant, I do believe this kicks in about the time Allegiant ends their Hawaii service from LAS.

Allegiant has been out of the Hawaii market for about 6 months now.

They announced that they wanted to be out of HNL by August of 2016 but they are still flying. From their schedule available on their website, they are still flying well into October. I don't see them ending HNL. With their new A320's that can take over service from the 757, I'm pretty sure it will stay.

Thats a smart decision by DL, LAS has no major airline that has a hub in it and flies to HNL (and I dont mean G4).

ASFlyer wrote:

seasonal? It's a 24 day service to cover the holidays. Nothing more.

That's what the poster said.

Holidays are seasonal. They occur in the holiday season each year.

HAL wrote:

77H wrote:

I wish UA would restart SAN and SNA (if better timed) to HNL. SAN is well within the range of the 739 and SNA could be flown with the reconfigured 73G. SNA administrators have been looking for an airline to restart Hawaii flights.

77H

If SNA management wants Hawaii flights, they would do better to try to convince all the NIMBYs in Orange County to let them extend the runway. AQ already proved the 73G isn't profitable to Hawaii, and the runway is too short for anything else to make it to the islands.

HAL

Aloha Airlines went kaput almost a decade ago. It may still be the case that United couldn't profitably fly a 73G to Hawaii but I don't think the fact that Aloha couldn't make it work is prima facie evidence that United (or another carrier) couldn't make it work today or in the future.

ucdtim17 wrote:

HAL wrote:

77H wrote:

I wish UA would restart SAN and SNA (if better timed) to HNL. SAN is well within the range of the 739 and SNA could be flown with the reconfigured 73G. SNA administrators have been looking for an airline to restart Hawaii flights.

77H

If SNA management wants Hawaii flights, they would do better to try to convince all the NIMBYs in Orange County to let them extend the runway. AQ already proved the 73G isn't profitable to Hawaii, and the runway is too short for anything else to make it to the islands.

HAL

Aloha Airlines went kaput almost a decade ago. It may still be the case that United couldn't profitably fly a 73G to Hawaii but I don't think the fact that Aloha couldn't make it work is prima facie evidence that United (or another carrier) couldn't make it work today or in the future.

Precisely. As I said up thread, my understanding is that AQ's demise had little, if anything to do with their mainland flying and more to do with the failing inter island operation. I think the failure of the CO and ultimately UA's SNA routes had everything to do with timing rather than the actual profitability of flying a particular aircraft type on that route. The flights were started during the recession which saw many Americans tightening their belt and not spending as much on leisure travel. Additionally the CO/UA flights were timed rather horribly exSNA. I believe the flights to Hawaii were late evening departures that didn't get in until very late. The return flights to SNA were redeye flights. As a consumer, I would avoid a late evening arrival into Hawaii if I had any other option. Doing so necessitates getting a hotel room for a whole day that you'll only spend a few hours in.

77H

nadavatar64 wrote:

Thats a smart decision by DL, LAS has no major airline that has a hub in it and flies to HNL (and I dont mean G4).

What does even mean???

The reasons AQ was liquidated in bankruptcy:
1. Interisland fare war instigated by Mesa Air Group's go! airline. In the first 16 months after go! started ops in Hawaii, go! lost $20 mln, but HA and AQ combined lost $65 mln. HA won that poker game ... go! and AQ folded.

combined with

2. Skyrocketing fuel prices with a Jurassic fleet.

AQ mainland routes were profitable. SNA-OGG had the highest RASM in their network. They were more reliant on the interisland market than HA (50% of revenue vs 20%) and were more damaged by go!.

HNL-LAS is a route than pretty much any airline could run profitably, at any time of the year. If DL has a spare plane lying around its the perfect market to jump into.

-Aloha!

covert wrote:

crownvic wrote:

While I doubt DL spends too much energy watching Allegiant, I do believe this kicks in about the time Allegiant ends their Hawaii service from LAS.

Allegiant has been out of the Hawaii market for about 6 months now.

I really wish people would take 30 seconds of their busy lives to research, before they blurt out a response like this.

HAL wrote:

AQ already proved the 73G isn't profitable to Hawaii, and the runway is too short for anything else to make it to the islands.

Come again?

~signed,
757-200

airportugal310 wrote:

nadavatar64 wrote:

Thats a smart decision by DL, LAS has no major airline that has a hub in it and flies to HNL (and I dont mean G4).

What does even mean???

That the only airline that has a hub in LAS and has a frequent flyer program is WN and they dont fly to Hawaii, so DL can gain traffic pretty easily.