The head of Hawaiian Airlines said Monday that the carrier is adding more flights and hiring for hundreds of jobs as it responds to strong demand, mostly from North America.
Hawaiian Airlines President and CEO Peter Ingram, who joined Ryan Kalei Tsuji and Yunji de Nies on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program, said the airline is bringing back seasonal nonstop service between Oakland, Calif., and Kona, and adding a second seasonal daily flight between San Francisco and Honolulu.
Hawaiian’s Oakland-Kona service, which the carrier last operated in the summer of 2016, will be available June 15 through Sept. 6. Hawaiian will provide the additional San Francisco-Honolulu service May 15 through Aug. 1.
During the peak summer period, Hawaiian will average nine daily flights between the Bay Area and Hawaii. Hawaiian is also offering daily nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Maui from June 11 through Aug. 15.
Ingram said the airline sees “really good demand coming in right now in the North America market as we’ve moved past the omicron surge and are in a better place with the virus than we’ve been in a long time. I’m feeling optimistic about what 2022 has to hold.”
Though international air travel to Hawaii still hasn’t returned to meaningful levels, Ingram said the carrier flew a bigger schedule to the mainland in July than it had before the pandemic. While the back half of the year was “bumpy” due to delta and omicron surges, Ingram said Hawaiian has experienced a few weeks of very solid bookings.
“By summer I expect our flights to be back to our normal level of fullness again,” he said.
As the carrier’s outlook strengthens, Ingram said there’s a new focus on hiring.
Hawaii’s largest and longest-serving airline plans to hire more than 100 pilots this year and upward of 300 flight attendants, he said. There are also opportunities for mechanics, customer service agents and administrative staff, Ingram added.
“It’s a fantastic time to join our company as we are getting ready for another era of growth and opportunity,” he said. “We feel like we have weathered at this point the worst of the pandemic, and we’re coming out the other side looking to be stronger and better than ever.”
