Hawaiian Airlines has amended its delivery schedule for the ten Boeing 787s it has on order while at the same time ordering two more. This brings the backlog to twelve Dreamliners. The airline disclosed the supplemental agreement with Boeing in an SEC filing on January 4, although the agreement was completed on December 30. Hawaiian pushes out 787 deliveries but buys two more.
The carrier announced its firm order for ten 787-9s plus ten purchase rights during the 2018 Farnborough Airshow. This followed after a Letter of Intent announced in March of that same year. The first delivery was originally scheduled for early 2021, but that was agreed upon before Covid struck in 2020 and 2021, and Boeing was forced to pause 787 deliveries over production quality issues. Boeing started delivering Dreamliners again only in August last year. Hawaiian had hoped to get the first aircraft by December before it decided to push them out by a year.
In what Hawaiian describes as the “best estimate of timing of aircraft delivery under the Purchase Agreement and Supplemental Agreement”, it has now amended the delivery schedule. The first 787-9 with General Electric GEnx-engines is now expected to join the carrier only in Q4 of 2023, with another three in 2024. The remaining six of the first batch will be delivered through 2027. The two additional aircraft will also be delivered in 2027. The revised schedule reduces Hawaiian’s capital expenditure for 2022 from the previously estimated $120 to $135 million to $45 to $60 million.
Back in 2018, the 787 order came as a surprise as Hawaiian had a firm order for six Airbus A330-800s. This order originally was for six A350-800s but was amended after Airbus decided that the smallest version of the A350 would not be launched after all. But as the only A330-800 customer at the time, the future of the variant wasn’t certain either. After a careful evaluation, the airline canceled the A330 order and opted for Boeing instead. It caused jubilation with Boeing’s Ihssane Mounir, who showed up in a Hawaiian shirt during the Farnborough end-of-show press conference.
Hawaiian ended January-September 2022 with a $-189.9 million net loss compared to $-52.2 million in the same period of 2021. The result included a $-38.5 million loss on investments, which the carrier attributed to a “correction of unrealized losses from equity securities.” The operating loss for the period was $-177.3 million versus $-11.2 million. Total revenues were $1.9 billion, up from $1.1 billion.
The airliner currently has 61 aircraft, including eighteen Airbus A321neo’s, 24 A330-200s, and nineteen Boeing 717s.
Active as a journalist since 1987, with a background in newspapers, magazines, and a regional news station, Richard has been covering commercial aviation on a freelance basis since late 2016.
Richard is contributing to AirInsight since December 2018. He also writes for Airliner World, Aviation News, Piloot & Vliegtuig, and Luchtvaartnieuws Magazine. Twitter: @rschuur_aero.
