Well, here’s a new route announcement I wasn’t expecting: Hawaiian Air is flying to SLC in 2024! I get that there’s demand on the route, but there’s a HUGE elephant (or two) in the room that makes me question the new route. That said, they announced some new SMF routes, too.
There’s no doubt that Hawaiian is struggling to boost revenue to return to profitability. With Southwest gnawing away at their bread & butter West Coast and intra-Hawaiʻi flying, and with demand from Japan remaining meager, they need to try something new. Recently, that meant starting routes to Boston, Austin, and Orlando, though that last one didn’t pan out. Now, Hawaiian’s going to take another stab at a mid-con route while also adding more direct flights from the West Coast to Kauai and the Big Island.
Hawaiian Air is Flying to SLC in 2024
To me, the biggest news in their announcement yesterday is that Hawaiian Air is flying to SLC in 2024. I get it; Salt Lake City and its surrounding areas are changing. With a massive influx of tech companies, the already wealthy area is becoming even more prosperous and diverse. Plus, the LDS church has strong ties to Hawaiʻi, with a large contingent of Polynesians being members. I get all that. What I don’t get, though, is how Hawaiian thinks it can compete with Delta.
You see, Salt Lake City is a major Delta hub. They absolutely dominate – to the point where most other airlines barely have a presence there at all. I liken it to AA’s domination at DFW and UA’s at IAH, albeit at a smaller airport. Moreover, Delta already operates a daily direct flight from Salt Lake City to Honolulu. So how is Hawaiian going to compete with that?
Before we get into competition, let’s talk about the flights themselves. Hawaiian Air is flying to SLC beginning May 15, 2024, with the following schedule:
- HA 84 HNL – SLC
- Departs: 6:50 pm HST
- Arrives: 5:15 pm MT on the following day
- Total Flight Time: 6 hours 25 minutes
- HA 83 SLC – HNL
- Departs: 7:00 am MT
- Arrives: 9:55 am HST
- Total Flight Time: 6 hours 55 minutes
It’s worth noting that Hawaiian plans to operate this route using their Airbus A321neo. Yeah, that’s not what I was thinking when I initially heard the announcement. Sure, the 2,994-mile flight is within the aircraft’s 3,500-mile range, but this is an overnight flight on an aircraft that has recliner seats in first class and no seatback entertainment of any kind.
Delta, on the other hand, operates this route with a Boeing 767-300ER featuring 26 to 36 Delta One lie-flat seats, 35 Comfort+ seats, and 143 to 165 economy seats.
Speaking of Delta, let’s go over their schedule for this route:
- DL 347 HNL – SLC
- Departs: 8:20 am HST
- Arrives: 6:23 am MT on the following day
- Total Flight Time: 6 hours 3 minutes
- DL 397 SLC – HNL
- Departs: 11:45 am MT
- Arrives: 2:38 pm HST
- Total Fight Time: 6 hours 53 minutes
I find it interesting that the two HNL-SLC flights are timed fairly close to each other. However, the SLC-HNL flights couldn’t be more different. It seems like Delta is timing their flight so that people arrive at a time that, by the time they get to their hotel, their room should be ready. Hawaiian, though, timed their flight so that it arrives in Honolulu kind of late in the morning.
Price
Since Hawaiian Air is flying to SLC in direct competition with Delta, it’s probably a good idea to talk about price. After all, Delta is probably the most expensive domestic carrier around, while Hawaiian tends to be a bit of a mixed bag.
I pulled a single date during Hawaiian’s inaugural week of service to do a price comparison. As of November 29, 2023, Hawaiʻi has main cabin fares starting at $359 from Honolulu to Salt Lake City, with First Class coming in at $1,176.
Delta is, unsurprisingly, much more expensive, with their Main Cabin fare beginning at $540 – no Basic Economy on this flight – and Delta One coming in at $1,926.
On the return, Hawaiian is charging $519 for Main Cabin and $1,216 for first class – that’s a pretty significant jump from the outbound flight.
On the other hand, Delta has Main Cabin priced at $580 and Delta One at $2,426. It’s interesting that this daytime flight is more expensive than the overnight one.
There’s a significant difference in price between the two outbound flights in economy, but on the returns, they’re pretty close. I don’t know about you, but if the prices were that close, I’d probably opt for Delta. Yeah, they don’t give you a free meal, but let’s be real – Hawaiian’s free economy “meal” is more of a snack. Plus, Delta has seatback entertainment at every seat. Hawaiian? You have to stream to your device.
Personally, I’d rather fly with Delta on this route, and already have.
Hawaiian’s Strategy
With the enormous gulf in flying experience, I began wondering why Hawaiian Air is flying to SLC. How on Earth are they going to compete with Delta? And, really, looking at the prices, it seems like Hawaiian is positioning itself to be the cheaper option, especially in premium cabins. Hawaiian’s first class is nearly half the price of Delta’s, though you get a far inferior hard product for that discount. They’re probably also banking on brand loyalty to fill the back of the plane, especially since HawaiianMiles are still better than SkyMiles.
SMF Flights
While I’ve focused most of this post on the fact that Hawaiian is flying to SLC in 2024, there are two other flights that are worth mentioning – Lihue to Sacramento and Kona to Sacramento. These flights will also utilize the Airbus A321neo starting in May 2024.
LIH-SMF
The Lihue-Sacramento route will commence on May 24, 2024, and operate every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, as follows:
- HA 66 LIH-SMF
- Departs: 12:05 pm HST
- Arrives: 8:25 pm PT
- HA 65 SMF-LIH
- Departs: 8:10 am PT
- Arrives: 10:50 am HST
KOA-SMF
The Kona-Sacramento route will commence on May 25, 2024, and operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, as follows:
- HA 74 KOA-SMF
- Departs: 12:15 pm HST
- Arrives: 8:25 pm PT
- HA 75 SMF-KOA
- Departs: 8:10 am PT
- Arrives: 10:40 am HST
When these routes begin, each island will have non-stop service to the Golden State’s capitol and will be the first direct link between Sacramento and Lihue. It’s also likely that these routes are a hedge against Southwest, which operates a Honolulu-Sacramento flight year-round and a seasonal Kahului-Sacramento flight.
Hawaiian Air is Flying to SLC, Final Thoughts
At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that there are two elephants in the room that need to be addressed when discussing that Hawaiian Air is flying to SLC. The first one was, of course, Delta. However, the second one is something that’s outside of the Hawaiian’s control – RTX. More specifically, RTX’s subsidiary, Pratt & Whitney.
All of the new routes announced yesterday are heavily reliant on Hawaiian’s Pratt & Whitney PW1100G-powered fleet of Airbus A321neos. And as we all know, those engines have been a major thorn in Hawaiian’s side since they took delivery of their first neo. In fact, things are so bad now that Hawaiian is disposing of only one A330 next year, as opposed to the five they originally planned for.
To me, then, the question is if the fact that Hawaiian Air is flying to SLC will help them financially. The real question is if they’ll even be able to commence service as envisioned. They seem to think the PW1100G nightmare will be behind them by May 2024, but I’m not holding my breath. If RTX has proved anything, it’s that they can’t be trusted. Just when you think things are going to get better with them, they get worse. I sincerely hope that Hawaiian’s optimistic prediction is right and that I’m wrong. But only time will tell.