Hawaiian Airlines fixes a date for return to New Zealand

Hawaiian Airlines will use Airbus A330s on the Auckland-Honolulu route. Photo / Supplied

Hawaiian Airlines is scheduled to return to New Zealand in early July joining other airlines in resuming or stepping up services as border restrictions are relaxed.

Return flights are US$681 ($983) between Auckland and Honolulu on the airline that last flew here on March 22, 2020. The airline will fly three times a week from July 4, again pitted against Air New Zealand, which is resuming its flights on the route around the same time, also three times a week.

Airline schedules have been changing dates and frequencies often in advance of restarts and it is possible the airlines flying to Hawaii will make further changes.

Hawaiian will use an Airbus A330 and Air New Zealand a Boeing 787-9 on the route, which was a battleground before the pandemic with fares at one stage dropping to around $500 return.

Hawaiian has been rebuilding its international network quickly, resuming flights between Honolulu and Sydney late last year on top of strong growth in flights to the United States mainland.

About 85,000 Kiwis flew to Hawaii every year before the pandemic and many of those flying with Hawaiian connected to the airline's mainland network, which now serves 16 cities from the islands.

The United States requires non-citizens to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and they are required to show a negative test result or documentation of recovery before they board a plane.

Hawaii has fared better than most other parts of the US during the pandemic but still suffered 1370 deaths. Case numbers during the last week are running at around 100 a day and Hawaii is easing internal restrictions such as indoor mask use.

Waikiki beach in Honolulu is a popular destination for Kiwis. Photo / Grant Bradley

More transpacific flights

The return of Hawaiian Airlines follows Air Tahiti Nui's decision to return in May.

The airline's post-pandemic passenger service will depart Auckland on Thursday, May 5, bound for Pape'ete.

Air Tahiti Nui has, throughout the pandemic and border closures, managed to retain its New Zealand operations and helped maintain international air connectivity for New Zealand through the Ministry of Transport's cargo subsidy.

The airline says cargo operations enabled a much-needed supply chain between New Zealand producers and suppliers with Tahiti, the US, and Europe. This also proved vital to the viability of the airline remaining in New Zealand.

Initially, Air Tahiti Nui will offer a weekly flight. This will be extended to three flights a week during the high season - July 3 to August 9 - with seasonal adjustments after that.

And Air Canada is returning in summer after its debut seasonal flights were disrupted by the pandemic in 2019-2020.

The airline will fly between Vancouver and Auckland three times a week as part of an accelerated expansion in this region as borders reopen.

The return of the airline will be a big boost to the tourism and travel sector and is seen as a vote of confidence in the New Zealand market, which is opening up to foreign travellers who won't have to self-isolate on arrival, starting with Australians next month.

Mark Galardo, senior vice president, network planning and revenue management at Air Canada, said the airline was accelerating the restoration of our Australian and New Zealand routes to respond to pent-up travel demand between our countries as borders reopen.

The return of the airlines is a boon for Auckland Airport where the number of pre-pandemic carriers more than halved from the 29 that served the city in 2019.

Airline capacity rebounds

The rebuild of air services to New Zealand mirrors a steady rise in capacity around the globe.

Schedule analyser OAG today said global airline capacity has increased to 83.4 million, an increase of 2.6 million or 3 per cent week-on-week. In the same week in 2019 there were 105 million seats.

OAG says this week's growth had the potential to be even higher, but airline capacity in China fell by 10 per cent (just over a million seats) as further lockdowns affected available airline capacity.

Forward-looking airline capacity for the next three months is cloudy and 28 million seats have been removed through to June - more than 12 million in April alone - partly because of Chinese carriers withdrawing domestic capacity.

However, if Chinese capacity does bounce back in the next few weeks, then as it currently stands, June is at some 460 million seats, which is less than 10 per cent for the same time in 2019.

The Southwest Pacific region, which includes New Zealand, continues to slowly reopen, and capacity has again increased week-on-week and now stands just below the two million seats a week mark - around 30 per cent down on the same week in 2019.

OAG says in the Russian Federation this week the number of seats operated fell by 25 per cent compared to last week. International capacity from the country has halved in the past four weeks as airlines continue to apply restrictions in Western Europe.