Hawaiian right behind Japan
Hawaiian Airlines has reaffirmed its commitment to Japan and its broader plan of expansion in Asia.
“While other airlines have announced service reductions to Japan, we have no plans to reduce our daily service to Tokyo, and we remain committed to launching a new service to Osaka beginning July 12,†said president and CEO, Mark Dunkerley.
Dunkerely said Hawaiian was seeing “a significantly less severe downturn in traffic than is being reported by other companies in the airline and tourism sectorsâ€.
“At the same time, discussions with our travel partners in Japan indicate that while a downturn is currently upon us, they expect a recovery in bookings after a short interval.â€
Dunkerley and other members of Hawaiian’s management team visited Japan last week and had the opportunity to gauge the impact of the earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima power plant developments on outbound travel from Japan.
“One cannot fail to be impressed by how quickly daily activity has returned to near normality in Tokyo and Osaka.
“It is clearly the case that those of us watching developments in Japan from afar have little appreciation for what is actually happening in these cities that are some distance away from where devastation has occurred.â€
Dunkerley said that Hawaiian’s Tokyo service serves primarily Japan-originating travellers who appear to be more inclined to keep their travel plans than are non-Japanese residents who had planned travel to Japan.
“In the initial period following the earthquake, we saw a number of cancellations and no-shows but this activity has largely dissipated.
“Looking ahead, we are seeing a slowdown in forward bookings for the next two months. Current indications suggest a slightly less than 20 percentage point decline in bookings over the next month compared to what we would have expected during this period.
“Given the role of tour companies as intermediaries in the Japan market, we don’t have a great deal of visibility beyond this period.
“However, our travel partners in Japan believe that, barring conditions worsening, a recovery in the Japan market could begin in May.â€
Ian Jarrett
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