United Suspends Service To Four Hawaiian Cities

With airplanes running virtually empty, United will further reduce domestic flights and axe service to four stations in Hawaii.

Between April 8 and May 3rd, United will suspend service between the U.S. mainland and:

Hilo (ITO)
Kona (KOA)
Lihue (LIH)
Maui (OGG)

That will leave only once-daily service between San Francisco (SFO) and Honolulu (HNL) and once-daily service between HNL and Guam (GUM).

Hawaii has an enacted a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine for all arriving passengers, which fines of $5,000 or jail time for violators caught mingling with others. Even travelers on neighbor island flights (except for those carrying out “essential functions”) must self-quarantine.

How much have these quarantines stopped traffic? Per the Honolulu Star Advertiser:

“The Hawaii Tourism Authority reported today that Wednesday’s trans-Pacific passenger count had dropped to 664, including, including 120 visitors and 257 residents. The count also included 159 airline crew members, 62 transit passengers and 64 intended new residents for Oahu and two for Kona.”

Normally that number is 30,000 per day.

The move is part of United’s wider move to further slash its schedules flights as demand has dropped below 10%. Overall, United will reduce April domestic flying by 78% versus April 2019.

CONCLUSION

With Hawaii closed off to most visitors by virtue of the 14-day quarantine order, it make sense to suspend most flights and focus only on Honolulu, as Hawaiian continues to operate inter-island flights.