Honolulu International Airport

Allegiant faces pivotal year as it seizes on AirTran cuts and works toward Hawaii launch

Allegiant Air has entered 2012 poised to capitalise on markets AirTran Airways is exiting following its sale to Southwest Airlines. On some levels Allegiant has benefitted from the capacity reductions fostered by consolidation among US carriers as the combined airlines exit underperforming markets. But as the new opportunities arise for Allegiant, it faces challenges in launching its long-awaited Hawaii services as the timeline to gain government approval for the operations remains a moving target.

The company is not shy about its plans to backfill some markets AirTran is exiting as part of a network overhaul by Southwest. Allegiant executives have stressed that as Southwest continues to digest the AirTran schedule, it creates opportunities for the airline to enter small markets that Southwest has concluded are unviable in the combined AirTran-Southwest network.

Hawaiian air services see dynamic change over the decades, with more to come

Hawaiian Airlines has again expanded its mainland routes, recently announcing that it will begin service between Kahului, Maui and San Jose, California. This is just the latest addition to a long history of airline service between the mainland and the Hawaiian Islands. And after some years of declining numbers, access to the Islands has never been better or more diverse.

Japan crisis: What does it mean for Hawaii?

Traffic between the two nonetheless relies largely on leisure demand between the two islands, and as such this is a market that can be in a consistent state of flux as various outside factors come into play. These factors over the past decade have included the SARS outbreak in 2003, the 2008 global economic downturn and the increasing volatility of fuel prices. There is also little doubt that the recent devastating events in Japan will have an affect on this dynamic air travel market, but what affect that is remains to be seen.

Alaska Airlines outlines a decade of restructuring

While other legacies were touting their achievements in their long and frustrating march toward a profitability they have yet to achieve, Alaska’s message to the Bank of American Merrill Lynch Global Transportation conference was that it was already there. Indeed, one of the few profitable airlines in the US, Alaska Air Group has been through a decade of restructuring, that did not include bankruptcy and which transformed from a north-south carrier in the hotly competitive and low-yield west coast market to a much more diversified carrier that includes both transcontinental and Hawaiian routes.