Kimberly Anderson, Mahina Ma and Alyssa Kehaulani Jay made Hawaiian Airlines history Friday, becoming the airline’s first augmented crew composed of all Native Hawaiian women who graduated from Kamehameha Schools.

Captain Anderson, First Officer Ma and International Relief Officer Jay flew Hawaiian Airlines’ Flight 90 to Boston at 3:30 p.m. The nearly 10-hour flight requires three pilots, allowing each to get rest time during the journey.

“I can’t believe it’s the first time it’s been done on Hawaiian (Airlines),” Ma said. “We get to fly with some of our really good friends, so that makes it even more special.”

“I feel incredibly grateful and honored, but more so, a sense of responsibility to be a positive inspiration and role model to all Native Hawaiian children and women,” said Jay.

According to Hawaiian Airlines, in 2022 it had the highest number of female pilots among all major U.S. airlines, with over 9.5% of its pilots being female, compared with a global industry average of 5.8%. Women of color comprise just 1% of all commercial pilots nationally.

“The makeup of our workforce reflects Hawaii’s rich diversity. Today, 29% of our employees identify as Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and over 9% of our pilots are women,” Alyson Holzhauer, Hawaiian Airlines’ manager of compliance, diversity, inclusion and belonging, said in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Anderson is one of the first Native Hawaiian female pilots hired by the airline.

“I’m proud that I get to fly with other Native Hawaiian female pilots, and I’m proud of what I do,” said Anderson. “I’m excited and honored.”

Ma and Jay attended Kamehameha Schools at the same time, and met Anderson while working for Hawaiian Airlines.

“There’s this unspoken bond between us because we all know we had the same upbringing, and that sense of identity and community that Kamehameha instills in us, we all know that we share that bond,” Jay said.

Ma said the connections formed at the airline are unique, given that the airline has just one base in Honolulu and the company has an intergenerational workforce — Anderson’s father used to be Maui’s airport station manager, both Anderson’s husband and Ma’s mother are flight attendants and Jay’s father is a captain.

Yet, despite these existing connections, the grouping of Anderson, Ma and Jay for Friday’s flight wasn’t intentional. While Anderson and Ma typically buddy up to fly together, Jay’s inclusion on the flight was purely coincidental — she said that she’d never flown with Anderson before Friday.

“Even though it was random, it still feels like a great responsibility,” said Jay.

The crew hopes to see more people in the cockpit who share their background. Anderson said that she wishes there were more scholarships available for aviation for female pilots, while Jay advocates for increased accessibility and resources for Indigenous people.

“I feel grateful that Native Hawaiians are finally stepping into these types of roles and are representing our people,” Jay said. “I hope to see more representation like this so that we can inspire other Native Hawaiians and encourage them in pursuing their dreams and aspirations, even if they feel they aren’t attainable.”

“As cliche as it sounds, if you honestly work hard enough, it’s such a possibility, and we just need more everything: more females, more Native Hawaiians, more locals from Hawaii, to find and to pursue this career field. Not just because we do it, but because it really is such a great thing,” said Ma.

For Ma the opportunity to fly with Anderson and Jay is an opportunity for her to express her gratitude to the company and to those who choose to fly on Hawaiian Airlines.

“We don’t get many opportunities to thank each other, the company and the people in Hawaii that continue to support our airline,” Ma said. “Without all the support we get, we wouldn’t be able to do this job.”