United pulling out of Hilo

[randomq]

Looks like United could have charged more and still been the cheapest...

[terracore]

The logic could be that Southwest is planning a mainland flight to Hilo.

  We can only wish. 

 Obie got it right, this is a low yield route.  United is methodically dumping their loser flights. 

Fly into LAX? Sorry I didn't support you UAL, but no thanks.

Maybe, maybe not.  Southwest has an aircraft that gets parked overnight at Hilo.  Airlines don't make money when their planes aren't flying.  It would make sense for them to send the plane to the west coast and back full of people and cargo.  This theoretical route would be flying out of Hilo at about the same time as the United flight.  They could add a trip from and to Hilo without adding an aircraft.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

They could add a trip from and to Hilo without adding an aircraft.

If that plane was rated for a long haul ocean route.  Or they had an extra plane rated for that route.  Obie probably knows more about the difference between inter island and mainland rated planes.

[Obie]

They don't have any planes based here. They fly in and fly a few interislands and rotate back

[TomK]

I spoke to a SW pilot while I was stuck in LA this winter and he operated flights to Hawaii from LAX. I think this was before they parked a plane overnight in Hilo, but their typical shift was a flight from LAX to HNL, then two or three days flying inter-island flights before flying back to LAX. As for United, they fly a plane that arrives in the evening in Hilo and flies it out again later on the night.

Remember these aircraft need an ETOPS qualification (Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards), not all aircraft in either company have that, so they have limited backup plans if something goes wrong, and doubt they can quickly substitute an aircraft if that's needed. Hawaiian B717s don't need ETOPS because they only fly inter-island.