What’s in a model?
For Hawaiian Airways, it is the individuals, tradition and place that the service is rooted in. If the islands had a flag service, it could be Hawaiian.
That model loyalty in Hawaiian’s namesake islands, in addition to Asia, the South Pacific and California, is why Alaska Airways is preserving it round. As Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci and different executives have put it, flyers ought to count on to see the Pualani relatively than Chester the Eskimo when flying to, from or inside Hawaii.
“The model is a lot greater than the visible expression,” Diana Birkett Rakow, CEO of Hawaiian, informed TPG in an unique interview in Washington, D.C., in late February. “It actually begins with the individuals. It begins with the tradition. It begins with a way of place [and] how individuals deal with one another.”
Enter Alaska’s new one airline, two manufacturers technique. It’s a seldom-used technique within the airline world, with extra failed makes an attempt than successes. Bear in mind Delta Express or Shuttle by United?
Employees will all be a part of one staff, or “ecosystem” as Birkett Rakow put it, with the variations restricted to the livery on the aspect of the aircraft and the onboard expertise. Every little thing from the expertise operating the airline to loyalty incomes (by means of the favored Atmos Rewards program that launched final yr) would be the similar.
The technique follows Alaska’s $1.9 billion takeover of Hawaiian, which closed in 2024. The deal fortified Seattle-based Alaska’s place because the fifth-largest airline within the U.S., behind the Massive 4 however properly forward of the sixth-largest, JetBlue Airways. It additionally marked the start of the airline’s globalization, with intercontinental flights from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) launched in 2025 and increasing to Europe this summer season.
Birkett Rakow, who’s only four months into the CEO job at Hawaiian after 9 years at Alaska, is the uncommon company chief who studies to a different CEO, Minicucci. Publicly, they’re in lockstep on their plans, each voicing the advantages of preserving and investing within the Hawaiian model for the airline as an entire.
Hawaiian on the airport
Alaska is rolling out new signage to replicate the twin branding at airports throughout its map. Quite than an easy strategy the place each airport will get each manufacturers equally, the airline is being rather more deliberate.
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“There’s very clear parameters based mostly on what model leads available in the market … or whether or not type of each manufacturers lead available in the market, and there is very clear parameters to maintain the 2 manufacturers distinct, after which that guides how we truly execute,” mentioned Birkett Rakow.
Take, for instance, Honolulu’s Daniel Ok. Inouye Worldwide Airport (HNL). Whereas each Alaska and Hawaiian fly there, the latter model shall be extra outstanding as it’s the dominant model available in the market. The identical shall be true in Asia and the South Pacific.
Conversely, the Alaska model will stay dominant at SEA and different markets the place it’s the lead model.
In California, the place each the Alaska and Hawaiian manufacturers have sturdy followings, the manufacturers can have roughly equal prominence, mentioned Birkett Rakow. “In all airports, the manufacturers present up collectively as a result of we wish to educate visitors that it is all a part of the ecosystem,” she added.
And, to be clear, vacationers can count on to see Chester-adorned planes in Hawaii now and again.
“Perhaps it is as a result of that plane is required for the airport functionality on the continent,” reasoned Birkett Rakow. “Or, there is likely to be [aircraft] swaps. You may at all times see the Alaska model pop up there.”
Elsewhere at HNL, Hawaiian is constructing a new 10,600-square-foot premium lounge within the Mauka Concourse that, as Birkett Rakow described it, can have the finishes of Alaska’s posh lounge in the North Satellite at SEA, however with a distinctly Hawaiian feel and appear.
Hawaiian onboard
POG juice, the onboard staple of Hawaiian flights, is sticking round in what is probably going a reduction to the airline’s loyal fliers. However the product distinction between Hawaiian- and Alaska-branded flights would not cease at juice. Every little thing from the meals and drinks accessible onboard to the bedding and amenity kits in premium cabins shall be completely different between Hawaiian and Alaska flights.
For instance, vacationers can look ahead to Kohana Rum cocktails and Lion Coffee — two distinctly Hawaiian manufacturers — on Hawaiian flights, and count on Pacific Northwest staples Straightaway Cocktails and Stumptown Coffee on Alaska flights.
Earlier in March, Hawaiian introduced a brand new govt chef, Dell Valdez of Hawaii, who will craft the model’s worldwide business-class meals and home first-class menus on flights to and from HNL.
Adopting this dual-brand onboard technique is nice information for vacationers who like Hawaiian’s Hawaiian-ness. However the transfer raises questions of price for the airline; stocking two cocktails and two coffees, among the many a whole lot of different distinctive onboard gadgets, provides complexity in an business that abhors the phrase.
“Positive, perhaps you possibly can get some efficiencies about making all of it the identical, however you’d now not have two distinct, invaluable manufacturers,” mentioned Birkett Rakow when requested about this added complexity. “You’d have a mishmash. You truly might need one much less invaluable model since you’ve misplaced the distinctiveness of each.”
“In the event you go along with [the] premise that every [brand] is inherently invaluable, then preserving it’s important,” she continued.
Whether or not Alaska generates sufficient worth from the Hawaiian model and all of its sides to outweigh the prices stays to be seen. Executives have promised to wring $1 billion in extra revenue from Hawaiian — and Alaska’s personal globalization — by 2027.
The Hawaiian phase of Alaska’s enterprise posted a $189 million working loss in 2025, a quantity that Birkett Rakow mentioned factored in about half the yr earlier than. The group as an entire turned a $146 million working revenue.
What’s subsequent within the Alaska-Hawaiian merger
For all of the dialogue of Alaska’s dual-brand technique, it’s straightforward to neglect that the merger with Hawaiian is way from executed. The airways achieved a single working certificates — a step that allowed them to mix operations behind the scenes — in October 2025 and plan to combine reservation systems in April.
The April cutover with Hawaiian transferring from its Amadeus-powered reservation platform — or “passenger service system” (PSS) in airline parlance — to Alaska’s Sabre-powered system would be the final main customer-facing change for the carriers. The swap is already underway, with reservations presently being “drained” from Hawaiian’s system and the ultimate transfer scheduled for in a single day from April 21 to 22.
“We’re doing loads of planning. A variety of testing,” mentioned Birkett Rakow, including that she is assured it will likely be a easy transition for passengers.
And, as if PSS was not sufficient, Hawaiian will formally be part of the Oneworld alliance the following day on April 23.
Oneworld membership will open up Hawaiian flights to all alliance members, not simply Alaska’s companions. Meaning, for instance, a Qantas Frequent Flyer or Japan Airlines Mileage Bank member will obtain advantages when flying on Hawaiian or touring by means of HNL.
In the long run, for Alaska it comes right down to preserving — and benefitting from — the individuality that’s Hawaiian Airways.
“The Hawaiian model is of Hawaii, and it carries Hawaii across the globe,” mentioned Birkett Rakow.
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