Hawaiian Air pivots to US mainland to cope with weak yen impact

Hawaiian Airlines is aiming to boost its domestic business to offset a decline in Japanese demand, due mostly to the impact from a sharp fall in the yen against the dollar. 

The Hawaiian Holdings Inc. brand has been hurt by weaker revenue from Japan, its largest international market, forcing a redeployment of capacity between the islands and US mainland, Peter Ingram, the company’s chief executive officer, said Tuesday on an earnings conference call. 

The sagging yen increases costs for Japanese travelers to the US and erodes the US dollar value of revenue generated by American companies in Japan.  

“We’ve backfilled some of this missing Japan point-of-sale demand by proactively intensifying our focus on the US and other international” markets, he told analysts on the call.

Chief Revenue Officer Brent Overbeek said the carrier has added flight service between Hawaii and US cities such as Sacramento, California, and Salt Lake City to absorb the extra capacity. Hawaiian’s overall international yields and load factor continue to trend lower in the current quarter, continuing declines it reported for the second quarter. 

“We can’t control the currency environment,” Overbeek said. “We have taken decisive measures to pivot our sales and distribution efforts to address the marketplace challenges.”