In early 2024, Delta Air Lines announced plans to launch a new seasonal route, which is the carrier’s longest domestic route yet. While the plan was initially for the flight to come back for a second season, that’s no longer in the cards. I guess this didn’t turn out to be a huge success, and I can’t say I’m surprised.
Basics of Delta’s Boston to Honolulu route
Between November 21, 2024, and April 30, 2025, Delta is operating a route between Boston (BOS) and Honolulu (HNL), with the following schedule:
DL438 Boston to Honolulu departing 10:15AM arriving 4:50PM
DL962 Honolulu to Boston departing 5:20PM arriving 8:30AM (+1 day)
The 5,095-mile flight is blocked at 11hr35min westbound and 10hr10min eastbound. While Delta initially announced it would use a Boeing 767-300ER for the route, in the end, the airline actually used an Airbus A330-300.
Furthermore, while the route was initially supposed to be daily, Delta ended up reducing frequencies for much of the season to 4x weekly, obviously reflecting weaker than expected demand.
This is currently Delta’s longest domestic route, just barely beating the carrier’s 4,983-mile flight between New York and Honolulu, which previously held that title. The Boston to Honolulu route is also served 4-5x weekly by Hawaiian Airlines, on a year-round basis. That carrier uses an A330 for the route.
Delta’s Boston to Honolulu flight will be discontinued
I can’t say I’m surprised, but as reported by @IshrionA, Delta appears to be canceling its Boston to Honolulu route after just one season.
I suspected this would happen back when the route was first announced. Of course the US legacy carriers need destinations to send their wide body aircraft to in winter, given that Europe demand is softer that time of year, especially with international business travel not having fully recovered.
So in that sense, Delta adding a Boston to Honolulu route made sense. Delta has continued to grow in Boston, and Boston was Delta’s only hub out of which it didn’t fly to Honolulu. That being said, there were many reasons to be skeptical:
- Hawaiian Airlines has been serving this route for a lot longer, and with fares in the market being as low as they are (often under $500 roundtrip), that’s not exactly a recipe for making money
- The Boston to Honolulu route isn’t great for connections, given the 10AM departure on the westbound sector; besides, for connections, travelers can already route through any of Delta’s other hubs
- According to data, demand between Boston and Honolulu is an average of under 200 passengers daily, so that’s not a huge amount of demand for two airlines operating in the market
- Hawaiian Airlines has the advantage of having connectivity in Hawaii beyond Honolulu, while Delta has the advantage of having a loyaler customer base in Boston
- Ultimately Hawaiian has a lower cost structure than Delta
It was a given that either Delta or Hawaiian would drop this route, since the demand levels simply didn’t warrant this service.
Bottom line
During this current season, we’ve seen Delta add a new route between Boston and Honolulu, using an Airbus A330. This was a logical winter addition to Delta’s route network, in the sense that the airline needs places to send wide body aircraft in winter, and Boston was the only hub without Honolulu service. However, the market is competitive, there’s not actually that much demand, and this route wasn’t set up for connections. So I can’t say that I’m surprised this route didn’t work.
What do you make of Delta’s Boston to Honolulu route being cut?
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