Hawaiian Airlines has decided to suspend its Sapporo/Chitose to Honolulu route indefinitely.
Hawaiian Airlines initiated the Sapporo/Chitose to Honolulu service in October 2012. The launch marked the return of regular flights approximately nine years after Japan Airlines (JAL) withdrew from the route. From June 2013 to September 2015, the airline operated a triangular routing with a stopover in Sendai for flights departing from Honolulu. The route has been suspended since April 2020, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The supply of Hawaiian Airlines’ routes to Japan is expected to reach about 56% of the 2019 figure by the end of the third quarter of 2023, and approximately 70% by the end of the fourth quarter. The airline is reportedly seeing a solid booking situation on its Haneda route and wishes to increase its supply in line with the growing travel demand from Japan.
During an October teleconference, President Peter Ingram said that the recovery of the business with major travel agencies in Japan has been slow, leading to efforts to advance direct sales through the website and partnerships with online travel agencies. He commented, ‘Although brick-and-mortar travel agencies continue to play an important role and will remain important partners for us in the future, their significance is not as great as it used to be. The market is moving away from blocks (allocating certain seats to travel agencies), and it will probably not return to blocks in the future, which I believe is probably a good thing for us.’
