Alaska Air Group has announced plans to invest $600 million over the next five years to modernize infrastructure and improve the guest experience in Hawaii. As I see it, there’s one part of this announcement that’s most exciting (and overdue).
In this post:
Hawaiian Airlines A330s getting full cabin refresh
Hawaiian Airlines’ fleet of Airbus A330s are expected to get major cabin upgrades. The airline has 24 of these A330-200s, and they’re an average of around 13 years old. The plan is for the planes to get a tip-to-tail makeover:
- The current 2-2-2 fully flat business class seats will be replaced by business class suites (the airline often markets this as first class rather than business class, given that these planes largely fly domestically, but that also causes some confusion)
- The A330s will be getting a premium economy cabin, which they don’t currently have
- The A330s will be getting big tech upgrades, including new high definition seat back monitors, and bluetooth audio, complementing the Starlink Wi-Fi that these planes already have
- The A330s will be getting new seats in economy, as well as new carpets and lighting
The catch? This work will only start in 2028, so it’ll be at least two years before the first plane is refreshed, and who knows what happens to that timeline, and how long the entire project will take.
Exact details beyond this remain to be seen, including how many seats each A330 will have once it’s in a three-cabin configuration, along with what types of seats the airline will have. Keep in mind that Hawaiian’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners have Adient Ascent suites in business class. However, these are seats that are exclusively intended for the Dreamliner, so I suspect the airline will choose a different product for the A330s.
The long term plan is for all 787s to get Alaska branding and fly out of Seattle (SEA), so the airline group can create a global hub there. Meanwhile the A330s will maintain Hawaiian branding, and will continue to fly out of Honolulu (HNL).
I’m curious how the Hawaiian A330 strategy evolves
With Alaska Air Group having recently acquired Hawaiian Airlines, we’re seeing just about everything change. When Alaska first launched long haul service out of Seattle, the airline operated these flights with A330s, though they have a very uncompetitive product (at least when you’re competing with Delta and top Asian carriers).
So while Alaska Air Group had committed to refreshing A330s, the airline hadn’t provided a timeline, or any exact details, until now. I’m delighted to see that these planes will finally get new interiors, though we’ll have to be very patient.
Currently, Hawaiian’s A330s are used for a combination of mainland flights, along with flights to Asia and the South Pacific. Updated interiors aren’t really needed to compete between Hawaii and the mainland, though it’ll certainly make the airline more competitive in international markets where it competes with other airlines.
I still can’t help but wonder what the bigger long term strategy is in terms of integrating Hawaii’s geography into the overall Alaska Air Group network, and making Hawaiian’s network more profitable. Seattle has great geography for flying across the northern part of the Pacific, while Honolulu has great geography for flying across the southern part of the Pacific.
Is the long term plan just business as usual, or to increasingly build a South Pacific network that includes routing people from the mainland via Honolulu?
Bottom line
Alaska Air Group has announced plans to reconfigure the cabins of all Hawaiian Airbus A330s as of 2028. The planes will get updates across cabins, including new business class suites, the introduction of premium economy, and high definition seat back entertainment without bluetooth audio throughout the plane.
These updates are most definitely needed, and I look forward to learning more.
What do you make of these plans for Hawaiian’s A330s?
Hawaiian Airlines still has the operational infrastructure in place to operate the A330 freighters for Amazon, so there's an incentive to keep the A330's to share those costs.
If AAG isn't doing these upgrades until 2028, that gives you an idea how backed up the supply chain must be for A330 interiors. This is going to leave HA at a competitive disadvantage from HNL to SYD/AKL/NRT/ICN for awhile, but the fact of the matter...
Hawaiian Airlines still has the operational infrastructure in place to operate the A330 freighters for Amazon, so there's an incentive to keep the A330's to share those costs.
If AAG isn't doing these upgrades until 2028, that gives you an idea how backed up the supply chain must be for A330 interiors. This is going to leave HA at a competitive disadvantage from HNL to SYD/AKL/NRT/ICN for awhile, but the fact of the matter is, these are leisure markets. What really matters is what happens in coach.
What hasn't been said is just as important. There are only 4 truly "international" routes from HNL (a couple more if you do nonstops from Asia directly to the outer islands). It doesn't take 24 A330's to operate these routes and AAG isn't going to put three-cabin premium service into HNLLAS.
Remember, AAG now operates the A330 freighter service for Amazon and I suspect the future of HA's A330's is somehow entwined in the future of that service.
Who knows? AS may end up taking HA A330's to operate them as two-cabin AS domestic service.
They cancelled HNL to ICN and moved that to SEA to ICN. Kind of bummed about that since I mostly fly to Korea. Don't really have loyalty to any airline now.
Shame they're not getting the same seats as on the 787s. Took them a couple times across the Pacific and other than the lack of storage they're nice and comfortable. Hopefully they maintain the look on the 787s though with the wood accent walls
Yeah, one would have thought the 330 would gone retire with 789s shall alaska not purchased hawaiian.
Could Hawaiian become somewhat of a connector by routing passengers from Australia and New Zealand through Honolulu instead of having to connect through Melbourne or Sydney and again on the US west coast?
It works for Fiji Airways so it could prove promising for Hawaiian if they set it up correctly.
One downside vs. Fiji is that while flying within the South Pacific via Fiji can require some back-tracking, it's not significant enough to discourage flying them, whereas trips within the South Pacific couldn't realistically route through HNL.
Demand and yields are limited down here so it would take careful strategic planning to make it work.
Proximity to OW/QF/AA matters here. Fiji codeshares a lot w/ QF and uses AA as their currency. It helps them tremendously.
HA is well-positioned to use their OW membership and possibly join the AA/QF joint venture, could help facilitate additional capacity and routing.
I think you mean mainland in this context"
"Hawaiian’s A330s are used for a combination of mainline flights..."
AS will go from no widebodies to having a fairly large widebody fleet spread across two hubs so far - SEA and HNL.
APAC flights use lots of airplane time and they appear to be content w/ their 787 order book and fleet which will include -9s and -10s.
They could get into domestic flying...
I think you mean mainland in this context"
"Hawaiian’s A330s are used for a combination of mainline flights..."
AS will go from no widebodies to having a fairly large widebody fleet spread across two hubs so far - SEA and HNL.
APAC flights use lots of airplane time and they appear to be content w/ their 787 order book and fleet which will include -9s and -10s.
They could get into domestic flying and esp. transcons where they don't have a product that is competitive w/ the big 3 and B6' premium configured aircraft but they likely could start adding widebody including international flying to some of their other hubs and large focus cities like PDX and SAN.
The US airline industry will be different in 5 years for many years and these aircraft will play that role in AS' pivot.
Tim, I think he mainline in this context.
Hawaiian’s A330s already operate a mix of long haul, medium haul, and domestic missions, so treating them as some uniquely protected asset does not really align with how they are actually used.
Alaska is moving from no widebodies to a fairly substantial widebody fleet, initially concentrated in SEA and HNL. With APAC flying consuming enormous aircraft time, it is obvious why they are comfortable sticking with their...
Tim, I think he mainline in this context.
Hawaiian’s A330s already operate a mix of long haul, medium haul, and domestic missions, so treating them as some uniquely protected asset does not really align with how they are actually used.
Alaska is moving from no widebodies to a fairly substantial widebody fleet, initially concentrated in SEA and HNL. With APAC flying consuming enormous aircraft time, it is obvious why they are comfortable sticking with their 787 order book, including both -9s and -10s.
Could Alaska eventually use widebodies on domestic flying, particularly transcons where their current product is not competitive with the Big 3 or JetBlue’s premium configurations. Possibly. But that is an optional growth path, not some hostile act.
Even Delta, which is often held up as the industry benchmark, has struggled at times to align premium product strategy with operational realities, particularly during periods of rapid fleet and network evolution. That is evidence of malice, not just the friction of scale.
The U.S. airline industry will look very different in five years than it has for many years. These aircraft are not symbols of displacement. They are simply the tools Alaska will use for its next strategic pivot.
Ben changed it to "mainland" so I think he and I were on the same page... since he also referred to Asia.
as for your comment about DL aligning premium product with operational realities, I'd love for you to unpack that (maybe this isn't the right place for it) but, specific to SEA and AS/DL competition, there is very little widebody or premium cabin domestic competition between the two likely because DL doesn't need...
Ben changed it to "mainland" so I think he and I were on the same page... since he also referred to Asia.
as for your comment about DL aligning premium product with operational realities, I'd love for you to unpack that (maybe this isn't the right place for it) but, specific to SEA and AS/DL competition, there is very little widebody or premium cabin domestic competition between the two likely because DL doesn't need to throw its premium configured aircraft at SEA domestic flights. Premium configured aircraft have higher costs per passenger while giving up revenue generating capacity.
DL does use widebodies and presumably will have its A321NEO transcon config aircraft in service by the time AS' 332s become available - and DL's 767-300ERs will be out of the fleet or on their way to the door anyway.
So, no, I don't see DL struggling to align its premium strategy w/ AS' either domestically or internationally.
It isn't worth getting into the rest of your argument about DL's premium products other than to note that DL does a very good job of aligning ALL of its products with the competition in the markets where those aircraft serve.
AS' 332s will give them the ability to compete for more premium traffic across a large portion of their network; the question is how much that will be international and how much it will include domestic.
It must be an 'Alaska' (post merger) decision because otherwise you'd think their 787s would've come with PE.
This is a racist, colonial move the likes of which we have not seen in this country since the colonization of Hawaii.
-Hawaiian Airlines fleet being reduced by 20% over next 5 years.
-Hawaian Airlines route network shrinking by 35% over next 5 years.
-Alaska removing superior cabin aircraft from Hawiian Airlines and adding in inferior cabin configurations to push out Hawaiian airline traveller's from the market.
HIGH LEVEL CONSPIRACY! ARE...
This is a racist, colonial move the likes of which we have not seen in this country since the colonization of Hawaii.
-Hawaiian Airlines fleet being reduced by 20% over next 5 years.
-Hawaian Airlines route network shrinking by 35% over next 5 years.
-Alaska removing superior cabin aircraft from Hawiian Airlines and adding in inferior cabin configurations to push out Hawaiian airline traveller's from the market.
HIGH LEVEL CONSPIRACY! ARE THERE ANY HAWAIIANS ON THE BOARD OF EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT ON ALASKA AIFLINSSN? NOPE!
Hey man… the crazy democrat page forum is just below your The View profile button… you should click it!
Colonialism… REALLY. You have just disrespected every American of native born islander descent in Hawaii who our proud of their American and Island heritage in this 250th year of our nation.
Well I take it you are part of the conspiracy then. Interesting. I don't have a button that says view?? So not sure what you're talking about there, islander. I don't click unknown links. Yes colonialism ever heard of it? I suggest "YOU" Google it and educate yourself on what it is! HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM???? The is what the UNITED STATES did to Hawaii which at the time qa its own country, land and culture. If you...
Well I take it you are part of the conspiracy then. Interesting. I don't have a button that says view?? So not sure what you're talking about there, islander. I don't click unknown links. Yes colonialism ever heard of it? I suggest "YOU" Google it and educate yourself on what it is! HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM???? The is what the UNITED STATES did to Hawaii which at the time qa its own country, land and culture. If you find this inconvenient truth "DISRESPECTFUL" then I submit (respectfully) that YOU are DISREPECTFUL. I do not expect or appreictae to be Attacked in the comment section for sharing a well thought out and well reseweched comment with the "TRUTH" -Make sense?
Honey, Meds. Take them. You will feel better.
Kooky Bradley "The Bradulator" "Little B" Saint Pete has totally lost his mind! Suggesting I need meds when many people are saying he is spewing 24/7 "NONSENSE" across the Website.
oh boy, what a brainwashed fool you are - the perfect democrat!
Ok, I’m almost certain Darryl is yet another alias of our resident troll, @Penile…got’em!
Or am I @Penile? Hehehe.
I took one of these for the first time around the holidays, LAX-OGG, in extra legroom seats. Perfectly pleasant experience. The IFE is indeed balky but the Starlink is fantastic so it’s not an issue. Not all the outlets/USBs worked, which is an issue on mid-haul flights.
So in the next couple of years we can expect new products with the following below:
-Hawaiian (or Alaska)
-EVA, China
-Cathay new neo and refurbished A330ceo, A350
-Philippine Airlines refurbished A330, 777
-Thai
-Delta A35K, A330ceo?
-British A380
And many more to mention.
Exciting next few years; you're going to have your hands full! hah
Woah, twenty four a330s is a decent sized (sorta-)long-haul fleet. Like, Delta has about eighty a330s (-200, -300, and -900neo). The -200 is an odd variant; only China Eastern has more (about 30).