Beyond the beach niche

Hawaiian Airlines leans on new tech to fight off a big challenger

For 90 years, Hawaiian Airlines has served the islands from which it takes its name, dotting the Pacific over 3,000km — in aviation terms, 1,700 nautical miles — from the US mainland. The islands’ separation and geographical isolation makes air transport essential for the communities they serve, as it is elsewhere for islands from Iceland to Fiji to Mauritius and beyond.

Hawaiian is unusually large and complex for an island airline, though, with its fleet of more than five dozen aircraft spread across four aircraft types, five when taking into account its island-hopping turboprop subsidiary ‘Ohana.