More than 3 million air seats are expected on nonstop flights to the Hawaiian Islands during the third quarter of 2016, a year-over-year increase of 1.1% and an all-time high for the destination for Q3.
The Hawaii Tourism Authority's latest Air Seat Capacity Outlook is also expecting more than 2.1 million seats on domestic flights connecting Hawaii with U.S. mainland, a 1.5% improvement over Q3 2015.
Airlift from Hawaii's largest source market, U.S. states west of the Rockies, is expected to improve by 2.3% during the third quarter, but available seats on flights from the U.S. East are likely to sink 5%, according to the HTA projection.
Fewer seats arriving from Chicago, off nearly 21% year over year, Atlanta, down 16.3%, and Dallas, off 3.6%, were too much to offset an expected surge of 24.1% from Washington, D.C.
International lift, meanwhile, is expected to remain essentially unchanged through the end of September, with losses forecast from Hawaii's largest foreign source market of Japan, down 3.6%, and Canada, off 4%.