Hawaiian Airlines delays 787 induction to 2023

Hawaiian Airlines (HA, Honolulu) is expecting the delivery of its first two B787-9s in the first half of 2023, eighteen months later than originally planned, Chief Executive Peter Ingram said during the carrier’s annual earnings call.

“Our two B787s that were scheduled to be delivered in 2022 [after the previous deferral] are delayed, and we now expect to receive them no earlier than the first half of 2023,” Ingram said, without providing a detailed justification for the delay.

Chief Financial Officer Shannon Okinaka added that as these current delivery dates are not firm, therefore, the type’s anticipated induction costs are still fluid.

Hawaiian has ten B787-9s due, including five directly from Boeing and another five from the manufacturer’s in-house lessor Boeing Capital. Deliveries were originally scheduled to have begun in October 2021. Following the initial two aircraft, now expected to deliver in the first half of 2023, Hawaiian Airlines plans to take the remaining eight between 2024 and 2026.

Hawaiian Airlines said it has since extended the leases on two A330-200s, but did not clarify whether this was due to the delay in the B787-9 deliveries. The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows the airline’s A330-200 fleet comprises 24 units split equally between owned and leased. The dozen leased aircraft are sourced from ORIX Aviation (three), Air Lease Corporation (two), Jackson Square Aviation (two), Macquarie AirFinance (two), Goshawk (one), Avolon (one), and Doric Asset Finance (one), the ch-aviation fleets ownership module highlights.

Ingram told ch-aviation last year that the airline was planning to debut the B787-9 on its US West Coast routes for familiarisation purposes and subsequently deploy them on its longest sectors with substantial premium demand.

B787 deliveries remain on hold due to manufacturing issues discovered in September 2021.

Hawaiian Airlines registered a net loss of USD144.8 million in 2021.