Oct. 22—The deal doesn't necessarily mean that Hawaii consumers will get their packages any faster or that passenger flights will get cheaper, but it could benefit the islands' economy eventually as it helps Hawaiian Airlines grow.
Hawaiian Airlines just picked up a new gig to diversify its revenue : staffing Amazon's cargo planes.
The airline's parent company, Hawaiian Holdings Inc., announced a deal Friday that it would operate and maintain 10 Airbus A330-300 freighters beginning next fall. Hawaiian also granted Amazon the option to purchase up to 15 % of its stock over the next nine years.
The deal doesn't necessarily mean that Hawaii consumers will get their packages any faster or that passenger flights will get cheaper, but it could benefit the islands' economy eventually as it helps Hawaiian Airlines grow.
"It provides us an opportunity to grow, diversify our revenue, strengthen our company, " Hawaiian Airlines CEO and President Peter Ingram told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an interview. "That puts us in an easier position to continue investing in the growth of our passenger business."
Hawaiian's stock rose 8.9 %, or $1.25, on Friday to close at $15.33 as 4.2 million shares exchanged hands, more than four times the average daily volume. It was the largest single-day percentage increase since May 17 when the stock rose 10.7 %. The stock traded as high as $16.15, or 14.7 %, during the trading session before paring its loss before the close. Amazon's stock rose 3.5 %, or $4.07, to $119.32.
When the pandemic shut down tourism in Hawaii, Hawaiian Airlines' share price went from the high 20s to, at one point, $8.65. But the pandemic "wasn't the primary driving force, " Ingram said.
"We view this as a good stand-alone opportunity. It is the case that the diversification of revenue that this provides us would have had us in a somewhat different position if something like the pandemic happened again, " Ingram said. "It wouldn't save us from the damage that was inflicted on our passenger business, which is still going to be very much the core of what we do, but it would have left at least one part of the company that was exposed to different economic and competitive forces, " he said.
The partnership will primarily run its operations on the mainland, with Hawaiian Airlines crews ferrying Amazon planes between the e-commerce giant's distribution centers. Hawaiian Airlines plans to build a pilot base on the mainland, expand existing maintenance sites and hire more pilots, dispatchers, mechanics, supply chain employees and other workers, according to a news release issued Friday.
The "hundreds " of jobs this partnership will create will not necessarily go to Hawaii residents, and Ingram did not specify exactly how many jobs will come of this. "In the long term it really depends on how the agreement grows with Amazon, " he said.
With more opportunities to fly could come more growth opportunities for existing staff. "Moving up the ranks takes place faster if part of the crews are being used for such things, " said Peter Forman, a Hawaii-based aviation historian. "All in all, it's a positive thing for Hawaiian and its pilots."
The deal was sparked when Amazon reached out to Hawaiian Airlines several months ago. "They had made a decision that they were going to transition some of their flying to being with Airbus A330-300 aircraft, " Ingram said. "They reached out to us as an Airbus operator who had a familiarity with the A330." What helped clinch the deal, he said, was that "we've demonstrated really strong operational reliability."
The A330-300 is a large, two-aisle plane that usually has about 330 seats when used for passenger flights.
The Associated Press reported that Hawaiian won't use any of its current planes to serve Amazon. Instead, Amazon's air division will lease the first 10 planes—which will be converted from passenger jets to freighters—from leasing company Altavair.
Ingram declined to provide specifics on how this will affect Hawaiian Airlines' revenue. "Over the course of the next year, it's very limited because we'll spend a lot of the next year just preparing for the first aircraft to arrive, making sure we've got the staffing in place, making sure we've got the systems and the processes in place. So we'll have limited revenue contribution in 2023, which is more of the investment. And then it'll start to ramp up more in 2024 as we build the fleet up, " Ingram said.
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