Hawaiian Airlines (HA, Honolulu) has reiterated its commitment to the A350-800 despite numerous other carriers abandoning the type in favour of its larger sister, the A350-900.

In an interview with Bloomberg news, Hawaiian Chief Executive Officer Mark Dunkerley said the type, of which Hawaiian has six on order, would be deployed on long-haul flights to destinations like Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and Singapore Changi.

“There’s been much talk about the A330neo, but obviously we must wait to see whether that will come to pass,” Dunkerley said. “For now, the A350-800 does three things for us: it has long range, it’s slightly larger than the A330-200s which we fly now, so it provides for a bit of growth, and it’s more fuel efficient, so it represents a hedge on fuel prices.”

The −800's fuselage is 10 frames shorter (six forward and four aft) than the larger −900 variant and is designed to carry 276 passengers in a two-class layout over routes as long as 8'250 nautical miles.

According to Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) figures, aside from Hawaiian, only Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo), Asiana Airlines (OZ, Seoul Incheon), and lessor AWAS, have maintained orders for the -800, whose backlog now totals just 34.