Hawaiian's Dunkerley says airline committed to Airbus A350-800 acquisitions

Hawaiian Airlines President CEO Mark Dunkerley said the airline is committed to acquiring six Airbus A350-800s, saying the long-range aircraft are ideal for flights between Honolulu and Asian cities such as Bangkok, Thailand, and Singapore.

Bloomberg reports Dunkerley, in an interview watt the annual general meeting of the International Air Travel Association in Doha, Qatar, said the A350, which has fallen out of favor in recent years with other airlines that prefer larger models, said the A350 serves Hawaiian well because it is long trance, it is larger than the airline's A330-200 aircraft and it is fuel efficient.

Bloomberg reports Dunkerley said he still expects to start taking deliver of the A350 aircraft, which seat 276 passengers in two classes and have a range of 8,250 nautical miles, in 2017.

Bloomberg reports Airbus has only 34 contracts left for the A350-800, compared to 600 for the larger A350-900, with Hawaiian and three other customers, Russian airline Aeroflot, Awas Aviation Capital Ltd. and Asiana Airlines, based in South Korea.

Hawaiian, a subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: HA), also plans to acquire 16 new Airbus A321neo long-range aircraft between 2017 and 2020 and has rights to purchase an additional nine aircraft.