Island Air (Hawaii) (Honolulu) has announced it will renew its fleet of five ATR72-200s with up to five Dash 8-400s leased from Irish firm, Elix Aviation Capital.
The Hawaiian carrier said in a statement that the first aircraft of the type - N681WP (msn 4543) - will arrive in the Pacific later this month followed by the second during the first quarter of 2017. A third of the type is due in April. The agreement also has the option for the delivery of two more new aircraft.
As such, ch-aviation analysis of schedule data indicates that the Hawaiian island-hopper specialist will deploy the Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) twinprop into service on January 12, 2017 between Honolulu and Kahului. Thereafter, effective February 1, 2017, the aircraft will be used to run a daily return service between Honolulu and Kona.
In 2014, Island Air planned to acquire two Dash 8-400s with options for an additional four of the type. Those plans were, however, abandoned in early 2015 following the onset of financial difficulties at the time.
