Aloha Air Cargo to cancel Honolulu - LA - Honolulu freighter June 1

Aloha Air Cargo is exiting its Honolulu to Los Angeles to Honolulu B767-300 freighter service June 1, citing the route’s unprofitability.

The decision was made by its Seattle-based owner, Saltchuk Aviation, which acquired Aloha’s air cargo operation in 2015 after the airline dropped its passenger flights. The B767-300 freighter operated on the lane Monday through Friday.

Unaffected are Aloha’s “triangle service” linking Honolulu, Seattle and Los Angeles which uses a separate B767 freighter aircraft, an Aloha Air Cargo spokeswoman told Air Freight News.

Additionally, Aloha Air Cargo ‘s B737 Interisland freighters are also unaffected, she adds.

Aloha Air Cargo notified its customers by a candid e-mail of the non-stop route cancellation on April 30. “…. while there have been successes attributed to the hard work our team, we’ve unfortunately not been able to maintain profitability in this lane,” wrote Jade Castillo, the cargo airline’s director of sales. “The decision was not made lightly, but it is a necessary step as we work toward the financial stability of our company,” according to the e-mail.

There has been no shortage of freighter lift between Los Angeles and Honolulu with integrators like FedEx, UPS and DHL all serving Oahu. Plus, there is belly lift on the wide bodied passenger jets operated by American, United and Delta airlines.

Aloha Air Cargo competed on the Honolulu to Los Angeles trade lane with Pacific Air Cargo which operated a 747-400 freighter leased from Kalitta Air.

“We certainly have sympathy for them because we worked closely with Aloha when they needed our support on the route. We are happy that their inter-island service is unaffected, “Paul Skellon, director of marketing, communications and PR for Pacific Air

However, a reliable source in the Honolulu air cargo community confided that the HNL to LAX route has been “weak” since Covid. He declined to predict when it would recover but it would not likely be in 2024.

The Aloha Air Cargo spokeswoman said the cancelled B767-300 freighter, owned by a Saltchuk Aviation sister company, Northern Air Cargo, will go through an extensive C-Check inspection, and be parked and “used as a backup aircraft.”

Meanwhile, Hawaiian Air operates two A330-300 freighters across the Pacific exclusively for Amazon com’s e-commerce freight and said it will add eight more of the same freighter in the next couple years and could zero in on the HNL to LAX route, says one source.

“Alaska Air, which is seeking to acquire Hawaiian Air, is a very aggressive air cargo operator and, if the deal goes through, could easily dictate where the A330-300s will fly,” he says.