Ends flight August 1
April 11, 2013
After intense fare wars with Philippine Airlines (PAL), Hawaiian Airlines (HAL) said today that it will stop flying to Manila effective August 1, 2013 due to poor sales.
"High
fuel prices and low fares have plagued this particular route and while
we have made several efforts to improve the economic performance of our
Manila service, including adjusting our flight schedule to optimize
connections and upgrading to newer A330 aircraft, we've concluded that
the route will not be a commercial success," explained Peter Ingram,
Hawaiian's chief commercial officer.
"I wished we were able to sustain the nonstop service but unfortunately
we can't do it based on economic reality," said Ingram.
Hawaiian Airlines flight HA 455 will make its final trip from Honolulu to Manila on July 31, and HA 456 will make its final return from Manila to Honolulu on Aug. 1, 2013. The service, which operates four times per week, was inaugurated in April 2008.
"If you flew on our Manila flights, you might be surprised because people will say gosh, the flights are pretty full. The load factors weren't the challenge on this route, it was persistently low fares," Ingram added.
Hawaiian Airlines flight HA 455 will make its final trip from Honolulu to Manila on July 31, and HA 456 will make its final return from Manila to Honolulu on Aug. 1, 2013. The service, which operates four times per week, was inaugurated in April 2008.
"If you flew on our Manila flights, you might be surprised because people will say gosh, the flights are pretty full. The load factors weren't the challenge on this route, it was persistently low fares," Ingram added.
Hawaiian
will continue to accept reservations for travel prior to the
discontinuation date, provided all travel is completed by Aug. 1, 2013. It's not clear whether Hawaiian entered code share agreements with PAL after August 1.
The airline said that it's reservations department will make arrangements with other airlines serving Manila to accommodate customers who have ticketed reservations after August 1, and will be contacting affected passengers with new accommodations.
Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines intend to do 5 times weekly services to Honolulu effective August 1 using A330 aircraft. The airline recently said that they are finalizing deals with aircraft lessors for four new aircraft for immediate deployment to Hawaii, Australia, and Japan. PAL flies Hawaii three times a week using A340 aircraft.
Filipino-Americans are the largest ethnic minority group in Hawaii with nearly 200,000 local residents. Many have close family ties in the Philippines and are frequent travelers there. Most passengers have inter-island connections, majority of whom hails from Ilocos region to which PAL passengers connects easily due to its early morning arrival banks while HAL arrives late in the afternoon with few or no domestic connections immediately upon arrival to most Philippine destinations.
The airline said that it's reservations department will make arrangements with other airlines serving Manila to accommodate customers who have ticketed reservations after August 1, and will be contacting affected passengers with new accommodations.
Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines intend to do 5 times weekly services to Honolulu effective August 1 using A330 aircraft. The airline recently said that they are finalizing deals with aircraft lessors for four new aircraft for immediate deployment to Hawaii, Australia, and Japan. PAL flies Hawaii three times a week using A340 aircraft.
Filipino-Americans are the largest ethnic minority group in Hawaii with nearly 200,000 local residents. Many have close family ties in the Philippines and are frequent travelers there. Most passengers have inter-island connections, majority of whom hails from Ilocos region to which PAL passengers connects easily due to its early morning arrival banks while HAL arrives late in the afternoon with few or no domestic connections immediately upon arrival to most Philippine destinations.
So sad....
ReplyDeleteAnother Foreign carrier lost to philippines...
Yung Transaero, Finnair at Turkish airlines akala ko ba magstart sila ng route to manila...
Well, business is business. At least PAL could take advantage of this situation, having no major competition on this route, while the FAA Cat 2 is still up. More likely than not once we return to Cat 1, Cebu Pacific will surely launch flights there as their leased A330s arrive.
ReplyDeleteAbout Transaero, Finnair and Turkish Airlines, I think their respective governments are still coordinating with CAAP to get rights to transport pax from their countries to ours. Of course CAAP can't just give rights away cause it will put local airlines at a competitive disadvantage. And hey, personally, I think they should fix up T3 and T1 first before getting more foreign airlines to fly to NAIA.
PR101, HNL-MNL, arrives at around 1430 every WFS. The ones that arrive at around 0530- 0630 are PR103 and PR105, LAX AND SFO- MNL.
ReplyDeleteUpdates: effective mar 31, PR 101 eta 0455h WFS. PAL Your HOME in the Sky...
ReplyDeletePal is way better than hal!
ReplyDeletePAL could offer code share agreements with Hawaiian on MNL-HNL in exchange for HNL-LAS :)
ReplyDeleteHawaiian Airlines will begin code-share agreements with Taiwan's China Airlines between Honolulu and Manila via Taipei starting August 2.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian decided to exit the Honolulu-Manila market alleging irrational competitive pricing by Philippine Airlines on the route.