Aircraft delays suspend HAL's San Diego flights
Hawaiian Airlines is suspending nonstop daily flights between Maui and San Diego for 66 days because of delays in the delivery of additional aircraft it purchased earlier this year.
The suspension will take effect from Jan. 9 through March 15. Hawaiian said it will accommodate affected Maui-San Diego travelers either by rebooking them on Hawaiian's daily nonstop Honolulu-San Diego flight with a connecting flight from Maui, or by making other travel arrangements.
Aloha Airlines continues to fly daily nonstop Maui-San Diego flights.
Hawaiian said interior plane modifications that need to be completed and certified are behind the delays of the three Boeing 767s, which are part of a group of four planes it bought from Delta Air Lines for $31.8 million.
Hawaiian has historically flown Maui-San Diego flights only during the summer, but announced in May it was expanding to daily Maui-San Diego flights starting Sept. 6. Those daily flights have been in place since that time.
In May, Hawaiian announced it would be expanding its West Coast service with the four additional 767s it acquired from Delta. All the planes were supposed to be delivered before the end of this year.
However, only one of the aircraft -- put into service in September -- has been delivered so far. Hawaiian said yesterday that as a result of the delays it has had to reschedule some of its trans-Pacific flights over the past several weeks.
Hawaiian said in a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the second aircraft is expected to be entered into service either this week or next month, with the other two aircraft to begin flying late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2007.
"We realize these changes are causing inconvenience for some of our customers, which goes against everything we work for at Hawaiian, and to them we offer our heartfelt apology," said Mark Dunkerley, president and chief executive of Hawaiian. "We are working as quickly as possible to complete the interior modifications and have our full complement of aircraft in service."
The suspended Maui flight is unrelated to its deal earlier this month to buy three other 767s it leases from Ansett Worldwide for $150 million.