With Alaska Air Group having acquired Hawaiian Airlines, we’re seeing the company take an updated approach to how it uses the Hawaiian fleet. Along those lines, plans have just been announced to suspend three “underperforming” legacy Hawaiian routes.
Hawaiian Airlines shifts Honolulu route network
As of mid-November 2025, Hawaiian Airlines plans to cut three routes out of Honolulu (HNL), including the 4x weekly flights to Boston (BOS), 3x weekly flights to Fukuoka (FUK), and 5x weekly flights to Seoul Incheon (ICN). These are all routes operated by the Airbus A330-200.
The company emphasizes that travelers can continue to reach all three destinations with connections, and passengers confirmed on flights that are canceled can be rebooked on other flights, or receive a refund.
As it’s described, these routes are being cut in order to redeploy capacity in higher demand (and presumably more profitable) markets. Out of Honolulu (HNL), we’re going to be seeing a fifth daily flight to Los Angeles (LAX), a fourth daily flight to Seattle (SEA), an additional 1x weekly frequency to Papeete (PPT), and an additional 2x weekly frequencies to Sydney (SYD).
Here’s how Hawaiian Airlines CEO Joe Sprague describes this:
“It’s always a difficult decision to suspend a route, especially in cities like Seoul, which we have enjoyed serving for over 14 years. However, despite our team’s best efforts, soft post-pandemic travel demand from Asia combined with various market challenges have persisted in Seoul, as well as in Fukuoka and Boston, both of which we entered in 2019. We remain committed to continuing to provide robust Hawaiian Airlines service between Asia and Hawai‘i through our nonstop Japan flights, and via one-stop connections to and from Incheon and beyond with our global partner airlines. These adjustments will ensure we are meeting strong demand for travel to Hawaiʻi – both internationally and domestically – while providing all our guests access to more destinations.”
My take on Hawaiian Airlines’ unsexy network updates
With these changes, Hawaiian Airlines is essentially taking two dots — Boston and Fukuoka — off the map, and both of these are routes that were launched in 2019. Meanwhile Seoul Incheon service is being shifted to Seattle (SEA), where the airline is setting up a long haul hub.
We’re primarily seeing these services replaced with fourth and fifth daily flights to existing destinations, which also feed into Alaska’s network. Each of these cuts makes sense:
- Fukuoka (and Japan more broadly) to Hawaii has become an extremely challenging market post-pandemic, due to the decrease in Japanese travelers (largely due to the weak JPY)
- Seoul Incheon to Hawaii is a very competitive market, with service from Asiana, Korean Air, and Air Premia, all of which have stronger name recognition in South Korea
- Boston to Honolulu was the longest flight in the United States, and the economics of that are just really challenging; Delta also operated this flight for one season, but cut it
The reality is that Hawaiian lost money for years prior to being acquired by Alaska, due to the challenging operating environment. Alaska Air Group’s goal has been to make the carrier’s operations profitable in record time, and I think these changes are the perfect example of working toward that.
Sure, simply adding even more flights to Los Angeles and Seattle might not excite us, but it pays the bills better than an 11+ hour Boston to Honolulu flight with $299 fares.
Bottom line
Hawaiian Airlines is continuing to update its route network, and is cutting flights from Honolulu to Boston, Fukuoka, and Seoul Incheon, all of which have reportedly been unprofitable for some time.
Now that the company is part of Alaska Air Group, capacity can be deployed a bit more strategically, giving the additional mainland flying options. The biggest change we’ll see is additional flying from Honolulu to both Los Angeles and Seattle. While not objectively very exciting, that’s where there’s more money to be made, so you can’t blame the company…
What do you make of Hawaiian Airlines’ network updates?
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