Hawaiian Airlines preps for a wave of capacity additions on its lucrative North American routes

United's network and capacity moves have had reverberations throughout the US airline industry during 2017, pressuring stocks and creating general uneasiness about a price war in the country's domestic market. A planned push by United into Hawaii during late 2017 has triggered concern that Hawaiian Airlines will come under pressure, even as most of United's expansion to the islands is in markets with numerous competitors.

Since United tabled its plans to grow from four of its hubs to Hawaii, Hawaiian Airlines has found itself trying to allay investor concerns that the growth is not unprecedented. Additionally, Hawaiian believes it is now in a better position to weather the changing conditions than it was a couple of years ago, due to the arrival of its first Airbus A321neo and an improved product mix.

It is too early to determine specific effects that United's push into Hawaii will have on pricing, but Hawaiian is poised to end 2017 with one of the best unit revenue performances among US airlines.