Alaska Air Group has just made a major announcement when it comes to the future of Hawaiian Airlines’ inter-island service. Specifically, starting in 2028, Hawaiian will be taking over some Alaska Boeing 737-800s, and using them to replace Boeing 717s. This isn’t a surprising outcome, though it could’ve (in theory) also played out differently.
Hawaiian will take over some Alaska Boeing 737-800s
While Alaska and Hawaiian both belong to Alaska Air Group and are on a single operating certificate, the two brands maintain their own identities. So each brand has its own fleet of aircraft in their respective liveries.
Currently, Hawaiian primarily uses Boeing 717s for its inter-island flying, as the airline has 19 of these planes in its fleet. While the airline also sometimes flies Airbus A321neos on inter-island flights (between longer sectors), the 717s are only used for these routes, and not any others.
We’ve known that the airline eventually planned to replace these, and we’ve now learned about the plan — Hawaiian will pick up some Alaska Boeing 737-800s, and they’ll be used for these flights. The goal is to begin the fleet transition in 2028, and move quickly to bring this additional capacity to Hawaii. As you’d expect, these planes will feature the Hawaiian livery, and will be flown by local crews.
Prior to that transition, as of October 2026, an Alaska branded Boeing 737 will already start flying between Honolulu (HNL) and Maui (OGG), with three daily roundtrip flights. This is described as being part of a plan to sustain frequencies while increasing capacity to meet the demands of the local community.
Alaska Air Group notes how this fleet transition will improve the passenger experience and expand capacity. Hawaiian’s 717s feature 128 seats, including eight first class seats and 120 economy seats. Meanwhile the Alaska 737s feature 161 seats, including 16 first class seats and 145 economy seats.
It’s noted how the 737s feature twice as many first class seats, plus 30 extra legroom economy seats, free Starlink Wi-Fi, more cargo room for surfboards, power outlets, seat back device holders, and more.
This was the obvious inter-island fleet renewal strategy
For quite some time, we’ve known that Alaska Air Group needed to make an inter-island fleet decision beyond the Boeing 717s. At one point, there was talk of whether the airline group could order new aircraft for these flights, whether that comes in the form of the Airbus A220, Embraer E190-E2, etc.
However, just using Alaska’s older 737-800s seems like the most obvious choice. Keep in mind that this kind of inter-island flying is really taxing on airplanes. These planes fly an insane number of cycles (takeoffs and landings, given the short length of the flights), plus the highly humid, salt-heavy environment is really tough on aircraft and engines.
So I would’ve been surprised to see the airline order purpose built aircraft for this mission, especially from a fleet complexity standpoint. With that in mind, just using 737-800s that would likely otherwise eventually be retired seems obvious enough.
Now, it goes without saying that the move from the 717 to the 737 will represent a significant per-aircraft capacity increase, as we’re talking about an extra 31 seats per flight. The economics of inter-island flying have become increasingly challenging over the years, with fares being down significantly, due to Southwest entering the market. Still, this is an important market for Hawaiian, and also for Alaska Air Group’s commitment to the state.
Bottom line
Alaska Air Group has made a fleet decision on the future of inter-island flying. As of 2028, Hawaiian Airlines will start to take over some Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-800s, and they’ll be used for inter-island flying, replacing Boeing 717s. Expect these planes to get the Hawaiian livery, and for this subfleet to be used exclusively for these routes.
This was the most obvious decision for Alaska Air Group to make, though there’s also a world where this could’ve played out differently, with a new aircraft order, or something.
What do you make of plans for a Hawaiian 737 fleet?
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