Hawaiian Airlines begins merger-related layoffs

Hawaiian Airlines plans to eliminate 73 people from its 1,400 noncontract workforce in Hawaii and on the mainland in the wake of its recent merger with Alaska Air Group Inc.

The job reductions come more than a month after Alaska Air Group, parent company of Alaska Airlines, announced Sept. 18 that it had completed its $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Holdings, parent company of Hawaiian Airlines. The merger is the first major U.S. airline combination since 2016 when federal regulators allowed Alaska to merge with Virgin America.

Hawaiian spokesperson Alex Da Silva said a vast majority of Hawaii’s 1,400 noncontract employees “received offers to stay with the combined organization for at least 6 months, and the intent is to retain most people for a year or longer, many with long-term offers. We are also continuing to encourage everyone to apply for open roles within our combined organization.”

Da Silva added, “We expect some non-contract interim positions tied to specific integration milestones to conclude once projects are completed in the next 6 to 18 months.”

More reductions could occur as the airlines get closer to operating under a single operating certificate. Aviation historian Peter Forman said he expects more layoffs of nonbargaining members will come, especially as interim jobs come to a close.

“This is such a small number of layoffs, I expect that there could be more but maybe no significantly more,” he said. “There’s not huge numbers of overlapping routes, so I think there will be a smaller number of layoffs than in most mergers, but obviously in the front office there are redundancies.”

For now the layoffs include 57 people in Hawaii and another 16 from the mainland that Da Silva said were “primarily for duplicative, non-contract operations support roles at airports.”

Andy Schneider, Alaska Airlines’ executive vice president of the People Team, announced the Hawaii workforce reduction Thursday afternoon in a notification to state Labor and Industrial Relations Director Jade Butay in a required Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification.

Hawaii layoffs include 52 people from Hawaiian’s corporate headquarters where 825 people work, four people from Hawaiian’s air cargo hangar where 213 people are employed, and one person from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, where 87 people work.

Da Silva said all 73 noncontract employees who are separating from Hawaiian will retain their jobs through Dec. 17, which is 90 days from when the merger closed. He said they will be paid through the end of the year and receive both a retention and a severance package, and individualized job placement services.

“We know this is a very challenging time for our team members and we are committed to supporting everyone through their career transition,” Da Silva said.

These latest personnel changes at Hawaiian follow individualized conversations over the past several weeks between Hawaiian’s noncontract employees and the newly formed transition team. Those conversations ended earlier this month.

They also come after significant merger-related personnel leadership changes. Peter Ingram stepped down as Hawaiian Airlines’ president and CEO after the transaction closed. Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines’ regional president of Hawaii/Pacific, took over as Hawaiian Airlines’ CEO to lead the interim leadership team overseeing Hawaiian’s operations while Alaska pursues a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Other leadership departures include Aaron Alter, Hawaiian’s chief legal officer; Avi Mannis, Hawaiian’s chief marketing officer; Brent Overbeek, Hawaiian’s chief revenue officer; Jon Snook, Hawaii’s chief operating officer; Robin Sparling, Hawaiian’s InFlight Services; and Rob Sorenson, Hawaiian’s marketing and e-commerce.

In the interim, the airlines will continue to operate as separate carriers with no immediate changes to operations. Sprague said integration of the websites, reservation systems and loyalty programs will happen later in the transition. The goal is for the two airlines eventually to operate as a single carrier with an integrated passenger service system. However, he said, both airlines will keep separate brand identities.

The combined airline employs about 33,000 people across North America, Asia and the Pacific.

Hawaiian’s airline unions, which represent about 6,000 workers, were assured from the start of the merger process that Hawaiian would maintain and grow union jobs, and the unions were strong supporters throughout the regulatory process.

Sprague told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser as he entered his first day leading Hawaiian that the airline will work with the labor unions to merge seniority and that the combined airline will negotiate new joint collective-­bargaining agreements with its union workers.

These labor decisions are coming at a time when labor costs are a major focus for many airlines, especially Hawaiian.

Jeffrey Eslinger, senior director of market insights for the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau, who presented an air service outlook Wednesday at a Pacific Asia Travel Association Hawaii chapter event, noted that the top U.S. airlines produced record revenues in 2024. However, Eslinger said “They had record-level expenses, too. They were up 2% in revenue, but their expenses were up 3%.”

He said 54% of all expenses for an airline are labor and fuel and that these costs and others all factor into an airline’s decision to make a commitment to a long-haul destination like Hawaii.

Eslinger said labor made up 33% of operating costs at Hawaiian, which had the second-highest level of operating expenses due to labor after Southwest Airlines.