Nonunion Hawaiian Airlines employees will learn, as soon as Friday, whether their positions will be retained through the company’s merger with Alaska Airlines.
While most positions are expected to be retained, the company identified some as duplicative. The notification process will continue for two weeks and those who are facing layoffs will be offered a severance package with career counseling services.
Union employees, such as pilots, flight attendants and other frontline workers, will not be impacted but will begin a process of re-negotiating contracts with Alaska Airlines.
Hawaiian Airlines has about 7,400 employees, but after merging with Alaska Airlines and its regional subsidiary company Horizon Air will now grow to about 33,000 employees globally. Noncontract Hawaiian Airlines employees who stay with the company for an additional 90 days after closing on Wednesday will receive a retention award.
The merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian was finalized on Wednesday.
Joe Sprague, the former Alaska Airlines regional president of Hawai‘i and the Pacific, has been named the interim Hawaiian Airlines CEO. He will lead the company as the Federal Aviation Administration finalizes a single operating certificate, which could take over a year.
“At that point, it will be one operating airline. However, as we’ve shared from the very beginning, we will be maintaining two separate customer-facing brands — Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines,” Sprague said.
“So even a year from now, when we get to that spot where we have a common operating platform, what the customers will continue to see here in Hawaiʻi will be Hawaiian Airlines,” he said.
All Hawaiian Airlines loyalty programs will be unaffected by the merger, but customers will now also be able to use earned miles on Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines miles will now also be redeemable on Hawaiian Airlines flights.
The company is also launching the Huakaʻi program for Hawaiʻi residents that will offer a quarterly 10% discount for interisland flights. Sprague added that there will also be offers for out-of-state travel. It’s similar to a program Alaska Airlines offers Alaska residents, where certain parts of the state are also inaccessible via car.
“All folks need to do is make sure they’re a Hawaiian Miles member. And then within the next few weeks, we will make a sign-up available … [for] benefits that will honestly address the cost of flying between the neighbor islands, including a free bag,” Sprague said.
“There’s a special relationship between the airline and the residents of a place that is so uniquely reliant on air travel.”