Hawaiian Air signs
$325 million engine pact
with Pratt & Whitney

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Hawaiian Airlines has signed a 20-year, $325 million contract to have the engines on its new Boeing 767-300ER aircraft overhauled and maintained at Pratt & Whitney's engine center in Connecticut. Hawaiian is replacing its McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 fleet with the 767-300ERs and got its first one in October.

The airline expects to have three of them in its West Coast-Hawaii service by the end of this year and a total of 16 next year.

The contract calls for 36 engines to undergo full-scale maintenance and overhaul work at Pratt & Whitney's Cheshire engine center.

Hawaiian has also almost completed the replacement of its interisland DC-9 fleet with new Boeing 717-200 aircraft.

Keoni Wagner, a spokesman for Hawaiian, said the contract probably won't affect jobs in Hawaii because the airline ordinarily sends its big engines to the mainland for the major overhauls.

In a statement issued by United Technologies Inc., the parent of Pratt & Whitney, Hawaiian Airlines President Robert W. Zoller Jr. was quoted as saying the capabilities of the Pratt & Whitney engines played a significant role in the decision to get the 767s.

The long-term maintenance program "perfectly matches the operational and financial requirements" of both the airline and Pratt & Whitney and is an essential part of Hawaiian's fleet management program, Zoller said.