Hawaiian is Suspending Three Routes

Before you get up in arms over Alaska Airlines forcing changes to steal planes, this isn’t that. Rather, since Hawaiian is suspending three routes, it’ll take those planes and redeploy them on their own existing routes that have the demand to justify the additional frequencies. 

A lot of changes have been happening at Hawaiian over the past year, including operating flights entirely outside of Hawai’i for Alaska Airlines, taking over 100% of the flying for certain Hawai’i-West Coast routes, and the pending loss of its Boeing 787 fleet, with many more changes on the way. However, as promised initially (and mandated by the current, separate operating certificates), Hawaiian is still making adjustments to its own operations, too. 

Hawaiian is Suspending Three Routes

For the first time since before the pandemic, Hawaiian Airlines has been able to turn a profit. However, that doesn’t mean everything is going well, particularly when you look at how international tourism to Hawai’i and the USA as a whole is fairing. To adapt to the current realities, Hawaiian is suspending three routes. These routes include:

• Honolulu – Seoul, South Korea (ICN) 
• Honolulu- Fukuoka, Japan (FUK) 
• Honolulu – Boston, Massachusetts (BOS)

The last returns from FUK and BOS to HNL will occur on November 19, 2025, while the final return from ICN to HNL is on November 21, 2025. 

HNL-ICN is the longest operating of the three routes being cut, having first commenced service on the route on January 12, 2011, while HNL-BOS is the newest, debuting on April 5, 2019. HNL-FUK began service on November 26, 2019, just 10 months after Boston, and roughly three months before most air travel around the world ground to a halt. 

I personally don’t keep track of route load factors, but I can tell you that from talking to people who worked for HA and those who flew the route over the years, HNL-FUK never worked. The flights often went out less than half full, so I was a bit surprised when they brought it back after Japan began allowing international flights once again. 

For HNL-BOS, you may recall that Delta tried to enter the market, starting service on November 21, 2024. But after just five months, they canceled the route as of April 30, 2025. That they so quickly canned this route wasn’t a good sign. Plus, with Hawaiian’s relationship with JetBlue ending, the route will be even more difficult to operate profitably. 

That leaves HNL-ICN. To be honest, with the announcement that Hawaiian is suspending three routes, this is the one that surprised me the most. But, again, haven’t been tracking load factors, so I had no idea how this route was doing. But, apparently, Hawaiian Air Jo Sprague says that, like with Japan, travel from Korea to Hawai’i never recovered after COVID. As such, the route has been bleeding money and needed to be suspended. 

At any rate, if you’re impacted by these suspensions, you’ll be offered the option to be accomodated on other flights, or to receive a full refund. 

Redeploying Aircraft

As I mentioned earlier, the fact that Hawaiian is suspending three routes doesn’t mean it’s doing so to reallocate frames to Alaska Airlines. Quite the contrary. Instead, Hawaiian will redeploy these jets on routes with higher demand. These moves include:

• Bosting Honolulu-Sydney to once daily between December 18, 2025, and January 31, 2026. Currently, this route operates five times per week. 
• Doubling Honolulu-Papeete service to twice weekly beginning in March 2026
• Adding an unprecedented fifth flight between Honolulu and LAX. This fifth and the fourth frequencies are seasonal services, with the fifth frequency running from November 21 to December 1, 2025, and again from December 19, 2025 to January 6, 2026. 
• In another unprecedented move, adding a fourth daily flight between Honolulu and Seattle from late November to mid-April. 

I’m sure we’ll see that fourth HNL-SEA frequency become permanent, especially as Alaska Air pulls out of the market. Ditto to one of the seasonal HNL-LAX frequencies. But as the other seasonal routes come to an end, it’ll be interesting to see how Hawaiian chooses to deploy these aircraft. Moreover, as A330 reconfigurations begin, it’ll be interesting to see if they reconfigure all (meaning they extended the leases on affected aircraft long-term) or leave some as-is (meaning they’ll leave the fleet soon and reduce capacity). 

Of course, adding a premium economy cabin to these birds will already reduce capacity. So, it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. 

Alternatives

Those losing direct service on a route with your preferred carrier is never fun, you still have relatively convenient options available, despite the fact that Hawaiian is suspending three routes. 

Boston

This one has the most options of the bunch, thanks to Alaska Air and oneworld partner American Airlines. From Honolulu, you can make a one-stop connection via the following cities:

• Dallas/Fort Worth (AA)
• LAX (AA)
• Phoenix (AA)
• Portland (AS)
• San Diego (AS)
• San Francisco (AS)
• Seattle (AS)

Fukuoka

Thanks to oneworld partner airline, Japan Airline, you can still reach Fukuoka via a single stop at either of the following cities:

• Tokyo-Haneda
• Tokyo-Narita

Seoul

Though not a oneworld member airline, Alaska Air partners with Korean Airlines, which means you can still enjoy non-stop access to ICN from Honolulu. The catch, of course, is that you don’t earn miles and EQMs at the same rate as you would with Alaska Air or its oneworld partners. 

And, remember, by November, HawaiianMiles will have been merged into the combined loyalty program, which is rumored to be called Atmos. So, at that point, flying Alaska, Hawaiian, or any of their oneworld partner airlines, is virtually the same from a loyalty/mileage standpoint. 

Hawaiian is Suspending Three Routes, Final Thoughts

You know, there’s an important distinction to be made here, and that is Hawaiian is suspending three routes. That’s different from outright cancellations. Should demand recover in the future, I wouldn’t be surprised to see HNL-ICN return, especially with reduced competition in the form of a merger Korean Air and Asiana. However, I do think HNL-FUK is gone for good, while the likelihood of HNL-BOS being resurected is only a smidge better (extremely unlikely). 

As for where these birds could go, I wonder if swapping an A321neo to A330 on HNL-SLC is under consideration? I doubt capacity would justify this. But, from what I understand, the flight sees some hefty weight restrictions here and there, which in itself is harming profitability, I’m sure. If Hawaiian is serious about maintaining this route, I’d think they need to upgauge to an A330 or place an order for the A321XLR. Being that the latter is unlikely at this point, I bet it’ll either be upgauged or canceled in the future.