Hawaiian Airlines Says Its Boeing 787s Are Delayed

Hawaiian Airlines, currently undergoing a fleet overhaul process to align itself with ambitions announced by Alaska Airlines Group, is facing complications.

Boeing has informed the carrier that certain deliveries of upcoming aircraft from the 787 Dreamliner are to occur later than the contracted time as Boeing faces complications internally.

For the affected Boeing 787 aircraft, Hawaiian Airlines has been informed that those set to be delivered between 2024 and 2026, including 2025, have now been moved into the following years.

Thanks to Boeing informing Hawaiian Airlines of the situation, deliveries are expected to be drawn outwards to 2029, complicating renewal efforts and future fleet planning at the company.

However, when a Boeing 787 enters service, Hawaiian Airlines believes the aircraft can fly for 25 years. Based on depreciation estimates, this will be around 10%.

According to this prediction, Hawaiian Airlines will fly the Boeing 787 into the 2050s before it is once more in a position to look to replace the aircraft with a current new-gen widebody offering.

737 MAX Delays In The Group

Unfortunately, those delays with the flagship 787 product are not isolated; they include single-aisle jets of the Boeing 737 MAX, which is equally essential to the Group and Alaska Airlines’ mainline division.

This 737 fleet is now expected to see deliveries for the 737-9 model pushed into 2025; meanwhile, deliveries of the 737-8 will also be adjusted by a year, moving from 2025 to 2026.

As for the airline’s upcoming acquisition of the 737-10, the high-capacity MAX model, there are complications in the arrival of this jet, considering it has yet to receive the formal type certification that would result in deliveries being approved and the entry into scheduled commercial service.

The 787 Struggle At Hawaiian Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines has had the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for around a year. However, just two units from this series are in the airline’s inventory, and that number isn’t expected to grow that considerably across 2025, either.

Much of the challenge in acquiring aircraft for Hawaiian Airlines, such as the 787 Dreamliner, stems from complications at American planemaker Boeing, which has not had a smooth operating period.

From walkouts of employee groups seeking better pay, which led to production halts, to persistent quality issues, these challenges have crept up on Boeing and impacted their ability to deliver planes on schedule to their airline customers.

Moreover, the Federal Aviation Administration continues to have increased oversight of the planemaker’s operation, which has prevented production increases.

Even if this was permitted, supply chain woes have affected output ramp-ups, as seen with competitor Airbus and their specific aircraft programs.

Unfortunately, as a result, Boeing is being forced to inform customers such as Hawaiian Airlines that their next-generation planes, which were meant to be game-changers, will be delivered significantly later than initially expected.

Hawaiian Airlines’ 787 delays throw curveballs into renewal efforts, have implications for the continuity of the products offered to customers, affect the broader finances of the business, and much more.