26-04-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Alaska receives more deliveries of Hawaiian's Amazon-supplied aircraft
Since its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Air Group said its revamped cargo division will play a significant role in driving revenue.
Story Highlights Hawaiian Airlines received two more cargo planes supplied by as part of a 2022 deal.
Alaska Air Group recently completed co-location of Hawaiian and Alaska cargo operations.
Alaska says the revamped cargo operation will play a significant role in driving revenue.
Hawaiian Airlines has received two more freighter aircraft, adding to Alaska Air Group's cargo fleet as the company works to integrate Alaska and Hawaiian air cargo operations.
Since its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK) said its revamped cargo division will play a significant role in driving revenue. Most recently, the company completed the co-location of some Alaska and Hawaiian air cargo operations and introduced unified cargo-booking systems.
Cargo services use both freighter aircraft as well as the bellies of passenger aircraft and, on Thursday, Alaska announced that its overall fleet increased by eight aircraft: four Boeing 737-9 aircraft, one Boeing 787-9, one Embraer E175, and two Airbus A330-300 freighters.
This means Hawaiian Air Cargo now has eight of the 10 Airbus A330-300 freighters it expects to operate as part of a contract, signed in October 2022, with Inc., a deal Alaska inherited from Hawaiian in its acquisition of the airline. In Q4 of 2024, Hawaiian had six A330-300 freighters and at that time Alaska said all four would be delivered this year.
The contract with Hawaiian states Amazon has warrants to take a 15% equity stake in Hawaiian Airlines over the lifespan of the contract, conditioned on meeting a spending threshold of $1.8 billion. As previously reported by Puget Sound Business Journal, Alaska agreed to buy out Amazon's warranties in Hawaiian, which could impact the deal.
On Thursday, Alaska also expanded widebody service with Alaska Air Cargo and Hawaiian Air Cargo by increasing its daily Honolulu-to-Seattle service from one to three widebody aircraft and added a second Boeing 787 to its daily Honolulu–Los Angeles service, decisions it said has optimized its cargo capacity.
Cargo operations between the two airlines serve more than 130 destinations and in March, the company announced customers can now book shipments across both networks under a single airway bill, which is a contract between the shipper and the airline.
As a result of the unified cargo booking systems, Alaska said access to its cargo network will be determined on the origin of the shipment.
Alaska co-located cargo operations this year in four Hawaiian locations — Honolulu, Maui, Kona, and Lihue — and at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. On June 23, it expects to co-locate at Portland International Airport as well as other stations later this year.
Additionally, in mid-May, Alaska Air Group will launch its first international long-haul shipping service between Seattle and Tokyo Narita.
In an unaudited summary form of the company's income statement in its first-quarter earnings, Alaska reported a 91% increase in operating revenue for "cargo and other revenue" ending March 31 with $122 million, compared to $64 million during the same period last year.
"We achieved record revenues of $11.7 billion, driven by the strength of our diversified revenue base, 48% of which was generated through our premium products, loyalty, ancillaries and cargo," the company said in its earnings report. "... Our new international routes and growing cargo business will lead to diversifying our revenue base with outsized growth in our cargo business, which is so critical to the communities we serve."
