Hawaiian Airlines, with 95 years of history serving island communities, shares a legacy of local commitment with Alaska Airlines, a 92-year-old carrier. Now, their combined network connects Hawaiʻi travelers to more than three times the number of North American destinations. Through the Oneworld airline alliance, passengers can also access over 1,000 destinations worldwide.
At a luncheon hosted at Fuego Argentinean Steakhouse on Friday, CEO of Hawaiian Airlines Joe Sprague served up updates on the ongoing integration, sharing new benefits, expansions and programs designed to beef up travel experiences for both residents of Hawaiʻi and visitors.
Sprague noted some recent milestones and new changes coming soon, including:
- The new “Huakaʻi by Hawaiian” program offers special perks to Hawaiʻi residents, including free check bags and discounted flights. The program has gained significant traction, with over 200,000 members signed up and a sweepstakes offering 10 million miles;
- New evening flights coming for neighbor islands, and new international routes coming soon, such as new flights from Seattle to Tokyo and Seoul;
- Plans to build a new Hawaiian Airlines lounge in the Honolulu airport, expected to be five times larger than the current lounge, set to open in 2027;
- Integrating Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines’ passenger service systems (software for reservations), expected by April 2026; and
- Aiming for net zero emissions by 2040, driven by a five-part path, including sustainable aviation fuel, energy efficiency, fleet renewal, property credits and novel propulsion.
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On the topic of customer loyalty, Sprague revealed that later this year, Hawaiian and Alaska will combine their frequent flyer programs into a single, “more powerful” loyalty system. This new program will allow members to use miles across both networks seamlessly and offer even more rewards for frequent travelers.
Additionally, Hawaiian Airlines Million Milers (Pualani Elite Benefits) will also see those same kind of benefits on Alaska Airlines’ flights, and vice-versa for Alaska elite level frequent flyers, according to Sprague.
Regarding inter-island travel needs, Sprague shared new flights taking off four times per week in the late evening, between Līhuʻe, Kona, Hilo and Honolulu (HNL) starting March 2. The late-evening routes depart from HNL at 8:30 p.m. Flights returning to HNL depart at 9 p.m. These flights are expected to convert to daily on April 1.
Sprague says the team is exploring new global markets, especially in the South Pacific, and has already increased flights in American Samoa. Various factors affect flight routes, including demand, crew logistics, airport slots and government restrictions.
Q&A Portion
Members of the audience had the opportunity to ask Hawaiian Airlines CEO Joe Sprague questions after his presentation:
Q: A question for Alaska Airlines—do you still offer the companion fare on your credit cards? I know that’s been quite a popular feature.
A: I think, honestly, there would be a revolt if they ever got rid of it. It’s a super popular feature of the Alaska Airlines credit card and not going anywhere.
Q: Now, there’s been some buzz about Japan flights originating out of Seattle, and I wanted to know more about that. Will we see direct flights from Japan to Seattle, or will there be additional stops?
A: I’m glad you asked about that. This is where the route planning between Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines really gets interesting. Let me give you a little background on the Seattle part of the equation. Starting May 12, Alaska and Hawaiian will begin offering direct flights from Seattle to Tokyo Narita. This is just the beginning, as later in the fall, we’ll also introduce a route from Seattle to Seoul Incheon.
Seattle has always been a key hub for Alaska Airlines. Sea-Tac is by far our largest location, and it serves as the heart of our operation on the West Coast. Believe it or not, the largest airline hub on the West Coast is not United at San Francisco, it’s Alaska’s hub at Sea-Tac. And with so many people flying in and out of Seattle, we’ve realized the need to offer more international flights, especially long-haul routes.
Until now, one thing Alaska Airlines didn’t have in its arsenal was wide-body airplanes capable of serving those long-haul, international routes. But thanks to the merger with Hawaiian Airlines, that’s changed. Hawaiian brings a fleet of wide-body jets, including 24 A330s and two 787s, with 10 more 787s joining soon. This expanded fleet will allow us to offer international flights from Seattle, including to Japan, and eventually even to Europe.
For residents here in Hawaiʻi, this expansion is good news too. The Hawaiian miles you’ve accumulated will now work for flights like Seattle to Rome or Seattle to London, giving you even more options for travel.
Now, to make all this happen sooner rather than later, we didn’t want to wait for the new 787s to be delivered. Instead, we’re making use of Hawaiian Airlines’ wide-body fleet that’s already in place to start flying from Seattle to Tokyo and Seoul this year.
Once we announced the Seattle to Narita flights, there was a lot of curiosity about what that means for Hawaiʻi-to-Japan service. I want to be clear: we’re not stepping away from that market at all. Both Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines remain deeply committed to serving the Hawaiʻi-to-Japan routes. We know how important this service is for bringing visitors to Hawaiʻi and strengthening the cultural ties between the two regions.
In fact, Hawaiian Airlines’ Honolulu to Narita route will now shift to Seattle to Narita, and we’ll still maintain strong service between Tokyo Haneda and Honolulu—actually, we’re even increasing the number of weekly flights on that route. Plus, service to Fukuoka and Osaka from Honolulu will remain intact.
Q: Currently, with the 8:30 p.m. flight, it’s impossible to attend a dinner meeting on Oʻahu and make it to Maui in time, meaning you’d have to stay overnight, regardless of the event. Coming back from Honolulu to Maui, the latest flight is also quite limited.
A (response from a member of the networking planning team based in Seattle): It’s a great question. I actually might ask a question in return, “which is what time is late enough to allow for those dinner?”
Different answers were spun round the room. “Nine,” said one audience member. “Ten,” said another.
A whole bunch of different times, and I think this is this. This exemplifies the challenge we always have when planning schedules, right? Is that everyone’s day looks different, right? A different time works for different people.
….You know, some of the things that we think about when we’re talking about those flight times is, can we take our crews back to Honolulu on that same day? Because otherwise, if it gets too late, then we have to pay some very expensive hotels overnight on Maui. There are a lot of things we have to consider when talking flight times, but it’s a great question. We’ll certainly take it back to the team.
Q. A lot of us are allergic to cities. We live here for a reason. As far as changes, we like being able to fly from here to somewhere and not have to fly through the big city (Honolulu). We prefer to not go through Honolulu. Can you forecast about the changes to our nonstop flights to/from Maui?
A: That’s a great point. There’s a lot of residents of Maui, which, like you say, would naturally not want to have to go to Honolulu and change planes, if they can avoid it. Then there’s a lot of visitors that love to come to Maui, and they don’t want to have to change planes and Honolulu to get here.
We serve, I don’t know, a half a dozen places on the continent, nonstop from Maui, and there’s no plans to change those routes right now. So the forecast is sunny.
Q: Another question came up about the ability to make changes to bookings online instead of calling customer service. A guest asked when Hawaiian’s online booking would be improved.
A: The short answer is yes, but the timing will likely be about a year from now. We’re working on integrating both our systems—Hawaiian’s and Alaska’s—which is a complex process. We’re moving towards a combined passenger service system by April 2026. This new platform will significantly improve your online experience, making it easier to make changes to your flights through both our apps and websites. Unfortunately, these kinds of system upgrades take time, but once they’re in place, everything will work more smoothly for you.
Q: Turning to a more sensitive topic, a resident asked about potential flight services to and from Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi, in light of recent challenges.
A: This is a topic we take very seriously, especially as it affects residents who rely on air service for medical and essential travel. As you know, the Ohana by Hawaiian service was discontinued during COVID, and we’ve explored the possibility of reviving it in some capacity. However, our regional jets, like the 717 or the E175, cannot operate on the runways at Molokaʻi due to the length and weight constraints.
We have explored various options, including whether Alaska’s sister company, Horizon Air, could provide service to these islands. Unfortunately, the current infrastructure doesn’t support those aircraft.
We continue to work closely with the community, including through our Community Advisory Board, which has representatives from both Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi. We’ve been meeting regularly with the local service providers to track progress, and I believe they are working hard to address reliability issues, particularly when it comes to medical transport.
It’s a tough situation, but we are staying engaged and will continue to work to improve the situation. We’re hopeful that as they add more planes, they’ll be able to provide more consistent service. And we’re committed to helping however we can.
Q: I know timing flights is often challenging for the business community. Any thoughts on adjusting the flight schedule between Maui and Kona to better fit business travel?
A: That’s a great suggestion. Timing flights to support the business community is exactly why we come out to meet with our Chamber members. We hear you, and we’ll take a look at the timing to see if we can find a better option for business travelers.
Q: Is Alaska Airlines looking to do Starlink Wi-Fi? What about the Wi-Fi on the 787 Dreamliner? Will that be available soon?
A: Starlink is a huge improvement over the previous satellite Wi-Fi options. And Alaska Airlines is looking at bringing Starlink on board as well, and we’ll probably make an announcement soon.
The 787 [Dreamliner] is an amazing aircraft, and we’re excited to bring it to Honolulu in the coming weeks. However, because it has a carbon fiber fuselage, it’s taking a bit longer to get approval to install the necessary satellite antenna. But once we get that approval, we’ll get Starlink installed, and it will be a huge step forward. It might take several months, but we’re on it.