US. Japan Airlines, the largest carrier serving the Japan-Hawaii route, is cutting two flights a day to Honolulu through most of April. This represents a capacoty reduction of nearly 800 seats a day.
The cuts represent the first major flight reductions to Hawaii since the start of the war last week. The airline said the number of customers flying to Hawaii has dropped by -40% since the start of the war compared with last year. The cuts were necessary “due to a fall in demand attributed to the Iraq situation,” the airline said.
Japan Airlines will reduce flights from Tokyo to Honolulu to two flights per day instead of three starting April 1. For the week of April 25 to May 6, it will have three daily flights to accommodate travellers for Japan’s key vacation period of Golden Week. That is down from the four daily flights originally planned for that week. Flights from Osaka to Honolulu will be cut to one daily instead of two daily for April 1 to 23.
The Japan Airlines flights are on 747s that carry 380 to 410 passengers. The news has serious repercussions for travel retail, said DFS Hawaii.
“There’s almost a linear effect in our business by that kind of reduction in traffic,” said DFS Hawaii vice president Sharon Weiner. “If they’re cutting from three to two flights a day, it’s a one-third reduction in our revenues right there.”
