Alaska Airlines to Replace Hawaiian’s Inter-Island 717 Fleet with Boeing 737-800s
by Daniel McCarthy
Photo: Hawaiian Airlines
Alaska Airlines today confirmed the future fleet strategy for Hawaiian Airlines’ Neighbor Island service, choosing Boeing 737-800 aircraft to completely replace Hawaiian’s aging fleet of Boeing 717s.
The full fleet replacement is scheduled to begin in 2028. In the meantime, Alaska will deploy an Alaska-branded 737 starting this October to operate three daily round trips between Honolulu (HNL) and Kahului, Maui (OGG).
Once fully integrated, the replacement 737-800s will wear the Hawaiian Airlines livery, remain based out of Honolulu, and be flown and serviced by Honolulu-based pilots and flight attendants.
Replacing the 717s with 737-800s brings a noticeable bump in onboard space and modern amenities, including more premium seats by doubling first class seats and adding 30 premium seats. It also modernizes the rest of the cabins onboard with power outlets, seatback device holders, and upgraded seats that those 717s didn’t feature.
The jets will also offer all onboard access to free, high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi across all inter-island routes.
