Flights, seats from Honolulu fell over 6 years, study shows

Honolulu Airport saw a 24 percent decline in domestic flight departures and a 19.6 percent drop-off in seats during a six-year period through 2012, according to a study released Wednesday by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The study said U.S. airlines cut the number of scheduled domestic flights by 14.3 percent. The number of seats offered fell by slightly less as airlines switched to larger planes. In Honolulu, departures fell to 65,684 from 86,377 during the period while seats declined to 8.5 million from 10.5 million.

Most airports have seen a reduction in scheduled domestic flights as a result of a difficult global economic climate and a U.S. recession, high and volatile fuel prices, and a recent trend of by major airlines to better match seat capacity with demand, the study said.