HNL RareBirds™: Fleet Substitution

16 December 2025

Kalitta Air's N769CK

Kalitta Air is substituting N769CK (c/n 32793, l/n 598) for their daily LAX-HNL-LAX service, CKS368/369 today. This "Big Twin" 777-36NERF was recently painted with Japan Airlines Cargo titles, and will eventually operate for JAL Cargo, by Kalitta.

32793's History:

Nov 2006: Delivered to Emirates as A6-EBW, under lease from GECAS.

Nov 2021: Acquired by AerCap, and the lease transferred.

Mar 2024: Withdrawn from service, and returned to AerCap.

May 2024: Ferried to TLV for freighter conversion, and registered as N769CK.

Nov 2025: Delivered and leased to Kalitta Air.

Dec 2025: To operate for JAL Cargo.

31 October 2025

Korean Air's HL7638

Korean Air is substituting their 747-8i from today to Monday on KAL53/54. The newly repainted HL7638 (c/n 60408, l/n 1531) is making today's service between ICN and HNL.

Our Mission

Our mission is to bring you the latest news on airlines, airliners, and flights that are rare to Honolulu. We also cover airline media events at HNL, airline news affecting Hawai‘i, rarebirds visiting Neighbor Island airports, non-commercial versions of airliners, and military rarebirds.

This is the original, and definitive news website about the Daniel K Inouye International Airport (formerly known as the Honolulu International Airport) [HNL/PHNL], as well as the other Hawai‘i airports, by a team of aviation enthusiasts, planespotters, and photographers.

"Our little corner of the Pacific on the Internet." -- PanAm Hawaii

For the latest HNL RareBirds™ updates, follow us on our X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and YouTube social media channels.

Mahalo,
Ivan Nishimura
(BlueWave707)
Founder & Chief Editor

The Fine Print

All photographs on the HNL RareBirds™ website are copyrighted to, and property of the photographer who posted, or submitted the photograph.

All photographs downloaded from the HNL RareBirds™ website are strictly intended for personal use only. Any digital or physical reproduction, and/or re-posting, without our written consent is strictly prohibited.

Any person or entity, including news media outlets (print, television and online), who would like to use any of our photographs, must contact us by email to obtain written/email permission to use their photograph(s). If not, your actions constitutes copyright infringement, along with a lack of journalistic morals and ethics.

Any photograph that is posted on this website that was obtained from another source, will be acknowledged as such.

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Disclaimer

This HNL RareBirds™ website is not affiliated with any airline, corporate entity, the Daniel K Inouye International Airport, the Airports Division of the State of Hawai‘i Department of Transportation (HDOT-A), nor any other city, county, state or federal governmental agency.

We cannot promise, nor guarantee, that we will get every rarebird that passes through HNL (or Hawai‘i), but we will do our best to document and/or photograph each one that we do catch; as well as provide the most up-to-date, accurate information, and history about that aircraft.

We will do our very best to remain objective. However, any comments, views, and opinions expressed on a post, or on this website by an HNL RareBirds™ team member, belong solely to the person posting the item, and may not reflect the views of the entire HNL RareBirds™ team. Personal remarks, if any, will be duly noted as such, on that post as a separate paragraph.

We are also not responsible for any comments made by non-HNL RareBirds team members. They are solely their own opinions. However, ALL comments are screened when received. Comments sent anonymously may be deleted at screening. Any comments that we find offensive, derogatory, irrelevant, a solicitation, and/or spam shall be deleted at screening. The same applies to comments with hidden or irrelevant links.

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Pages

16 December 2025

Kalitta Air's N769CK

31 October 2025

Korean Air's HL7638