Alaska Air concludes service gaps to Hawaii are largely filled

Alaska Airlines' aggressive push into Hawaii after the nearly overnight demise of Aloha Airlines and ATA in 2008 appears to be leveling off as the carrier has determined that the rapid growth it has engineered to the islands will slow as the service gaps created by the abrupt exodus of those carriers have largely been filled. At the same time the carrier is seeing some competitive pressure at its Portland hub while taking advantage of a less competitive market with the addition of new service from San Diego.

Alaska expects its service to Hawaii to account for about 20% of its supply in 2012, a 13 ppt jump from the 7% of its flights dedicated to Hawaii in 2009. The carrier has adopted a strategy of launching service to Hawaii from US markets that do not have a large service footprint to the islands, and as a result has shielded itself from competition on those routes from mainland US carriers. At the end of 2011 Alaska estimated that more than 60% of its Hawaiian markets were not served by other carriers, driven by the carrier's strategy to largely shun Honolulu in favour of direct flights to other markets in Hawaii. The carrier does offer flights to Honolulu from its Anchorage, Portland and Seattle hubs, and from the California cities of Oakland, San Jose and San Diego. It also serves Honolulu from Bellingham, Washington. Alaska competes with Hawaiian Airlines in four of those markets - San Jose, San Diego, Portland and Seattle.