Hawaiian Airlines axing flights to Sendai, Japan; weak yen blamed

HONOLULU (AP) — A weak yen and lack of passenger interest have led Hawaiian Airlines to drop service to Sendai beginning in September.

Sendai, Japan's fifth-largest city, is the fourth international destination cut by the state's largest carrier in the last two years after an aggressive expansion attempt abroad, reports the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Currently, triangular, thrice-weekly route offers a nonstop flight to Sendai before continuing to Sapporo, Japan, and returning to Honlulu.

The route started as nonstop service to Sapporo in 2012, but the airline added the Sendai stop the following year. In October, it will resume the two-way, nonstop route to Sapporo.

"Unfortunately, despite two years of solid efforts, we have not seen sufficient passenger growth to justify continuing this three-way route," said Takaya Shishido, Hawaiian Airline's country director for Japan.

On average, the airline only filled 35% of its 264 seats on the Honolulu-Sendai leg but 70% on its Sapporo-Honolulu leg, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

With these changes, Hawaiian will serve three Japanese cities: Tokyo, Osaka and Sapporo.

On Wednesday, the strengthening U.S. dollar fetched 121.16 yen compared with 101.28 a year ago.

"The weak yen has put downward pressure on dollar-based revenues," said Hawaiian spokeswoman Ann Botticelli. "Larger markets have deeper pools of demand to offset the currency challenges. So the yen was a factor."

"But the main factor was that we did not see enough growth in that market to justify the continued expense of the triangular route configuration."