Late last month, news leaked that Hawaiian Holdings (NASDAQ:HA) planned to dump its order for the slow-selling Airbus (NASDAQOTH:EADSY) A330-800neo, in favor of Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) popular 787-9 Dreamliner.
The airline initially denied that it had made any final decision on its fleet. However, it formally announced its plans to switch to the Dreamliner earlier this week, contingent on reaching contract amendments with its pilots and flight attendants to incorporate the Dreamliner into its fleet. Hawaiian hopes to place a firm order for 10 787-9s during the second quarter, with options for an additional 10. Deliveries are set to begin in 2021.
The advantages of the Dreamliner
Given that Hawaiian Airlines operates an extensive fleet of Airbus A330-200s, the carrier would have benefited from significant efficiencies if it had stuck with the A330neo family for its fleet upgrades. Nevertheless, Boeing’s 787-9 does have some advantages, particularly if Hawaiian continues to add longer routes to its network.
The general consensus among aviation experts is that the A330neo doesn’t offer much of a fuel efficiency improvement over current-generation A330s on routes shorter than 2,000 miles. For West Coast-Hawaii flights — which average about 2,500 miles — there wouldn’t be much benefit to upgrading from the A330-200 to either an A330neo or a 787-9.
By contrast, the benefits of new engine technology will shine through on longer-range routes. For missions like Hawaii-Japan, the A330neo and 787-9 would both offer big improvements over Hawaiian Airlines’ current fleet and would be roughly evenly matched against one another.
However, the 787-9 will have appreciably lower unit costs than the A330-900neo, its direct competitor, on Hawaiian’s longest routes. Part of this stems from superior fuel efficiency, as the A330neo’s underlying design is almost two decades older than that of the Dreamliner…
