Northwest-Delta Merger Likely to Reduce Hawaii Service
The recently announced merger deal between Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines is likely to put more pressure on Hawaii air capacity.
Delta currently offers seven daily round trips to the islands, five to Oahu and two to Maui. Northwest operates six flights daily from the US mainland to Oahu.
It is expected the merged airlines will try to trim $1 billion yearly from operating costs. This likely means flights will be eliminated on duplicate routes.
Both Northwest and Delta offer west coast service from Los Angeles and San Francisco. The likely reduction in the number of flights will mean a further loss of seating capacity to the islands. The recent shutdowns of ATA and Aloha airlines has already pulled thousands of seats from this market.
For now problems with the pilots and machinists unions are likely to delay the deal. But, the handwriting seems to be on the wall, merge or die.
So, it seems likely that sooner or later it’s goodbye to those low low west coast airfares to the islands. Well there’s always Mexico.