That headline is something many of us never expected to read. This April 22, 2026, is the day Hawaiian Airlines officially ends. Alaska’s reservation system takes over, Hawaiian flight numbers disappear, and all operations move to Alaska. Hawaiian joins the oneworld alliance too on the same day, but for Hawaii travelers, the alliance is not the headline. The independent airline you knew will cease to exist as part of the process that began with Alaska’s purchase of Hawaiian on December 3, 2023.
You can still board a plane painted with the iconic Pualani on the tail, but you will not book an HA flight anymore. Your confirmation email shows AS (Alaska). Your boarding pass shows AS. What airport departure boards and gate screens display on day one is a separate question. That and much more is still to be revealed.
When the code disappears, not the paint.
The Hawaiian call sign already ended last fall, when HA866 flew from Pago Pago to Honolulu on October 29, 2025, closing out 95 years of Hawaiian flight numbers in the sky. Call signs are largely for pilots and air traffic control, and most travelers never really see them. April 22 is entirely different because flight numbers exist on your itinerary, your receipt, your screenshot, and your email, and as HA disappears from those, you will see it.
What booking Hawaiian looks like after April 22.
Customer service interactions will route entirely through Alaska’s systems. Schedule changes, irregular operations, rebooking rules, and automated notifications follow Alaska, and frequent travelers will notice these differences too. For many this will be a welcome change, including the long-planned elimination of Hawaiian’s Philippines-based call center.
A huge reservation system change is happening behind the scenes.
April 22 is when Alaska’s reservation system replaces what remains of Hawaiian’s Amadeus platform, which has been degraded ever since the 2023 Sabre-to-Amadeus migration went sideways, infuriating Hawaiian customers. The cutover is intended to resolve years of booking infrastructure problems. But we’re keeping in mind that system migrations at this scale have historically created turbulence before they stabilize, so patience may still be required in the short term.
Branding stays, for now.
The visual identity remains intact on April 22. Pualani stays on the tail, uniforms stay recognizable, and the onboard experience does not change that day. Alaska has acknowledged that Hawaiian branding carries value in Hawaii, but Alaska has not committed to how much of it stays or for how long. Everything past the paint is already Alaska.
The oneworld alliance arrives on the same day.
April 22 is also the day Hawaiian becomes a full member of the oneworld alliance. International lounge access improves, elite status recognition lines up across partner airlines, and earning and redeeming miles on oneworld carriers becomes accessible. Hawaiian did not have that type of alliance before and only had limited partners of its own. Under Alaska, it does have, for the first time, a very robust partner network.
Atmos status is part of the oneworld structure wherein Silver aligns with oneworld Ruby, Gold with oneworld Sapphire, and Platinum and Titanium with oneworld Emerald. For travelers who qualify, that means priority services and lounge access when flying internationally. Alliance benefits may work best outside of Hawaii for now, as many of you have noted.
What Alaska has promised next for Hawaii.
Alaska has announced a $600 million investment covering airport renovations at five Hawaii airports, a full A330 cabin refit starting in 2028, and a new flagship lounge at Honolulu in late 2027. All twenty-four A330s are set to receive a new business class in a 1-2-1 layout with privacy doors and direct aisle access, replacing the dated 2-2-2 business configuration.
The same design team behind the 787 soft product is said to be handling the A330, and the refit was quoted as rolling out across the entire fleet over roughly 12 months starting in January 2028. A true premium economy cabin comes with it, separate from Extra Comfort (extra legroom). Extra Comfort rebrands to Alaska Premium Class on April 22 as an Alaska alignment, but the new premium economy class itself will not start to arrive until sometime in 2028.
The Honolulu lounge will expand to roughly five times the current Plumeria Lounge footprint at the Terminal 1 Mauka Concourse entrance. Beat of Hawaii has covered that new Honolulu Atmos Lounge separately. None of these upgrades changes anything significant if you are flying Hawaiian anytime soon.
What happens to the A321neo, A330, and the 717 interisland fleets long term under Alaska is a separate question. Beat of Hawaii has been covering that.
But Hawaiian had been running out of runway long before Alaska ever arrived, and the acquisition is the reason there is still a Pualani tail flying to Hawaii at all. What Alaska does with the paint, the brand, and the Hawaii routes from here is the part we’ll continue watching.
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Well, the day has finally arrived…aloha, Hawaiian Airlines. We all hate to see favorite airlines go away and Hawaiian is (I refuse to go past-tense here) going to remain in our hearts.
If I may throw this out, there are several good companies that offer detailed airline-livery/aircraft-type specific models for reasonable prices, you just need to look around Google to find what the offerings are.
If you are going to miss Pualani (and we all will), you can get Hawaiian Model Aircraft with the Pualani livery for your desk or home.
I have no business affiliation with a model business, but do have a gifted Arizona One livery specific 737-700 from my retirement many years ago. It continues to grace my bookshelf and provide great memories.
Just saying, Pualani on a Dreamliner looks pretty neat.
Aloha, Hawaiian. Thanks for the memories.
Hawaiian is unique as it always displayed and followed the traditions and utilization of our culture here.
We just made reservations for a family emergency going to California. My Husband just came back from another trip recently for initial family emergency and he was very , very uncomfortable on the old Alaska carriers. I flew Alaska once and was also miserable.
While booking this upcoming trip it was difficult as we are flying in first class and we only want the HA planes and not Alaska planes. It took a long time to finally speak with someone who understood what we were asking for and actually had to extend our return for 2 days later just so we could be assured that we would be on an actual HA plane. I pray that it does happen. My husband just told me he flew Alaska recently and said there was No padding in the seats. He was miserable.
We are praying for a better experience!
So, so sad. Loved Hawaiian Airlines and been flying them since the 70″s. In fact we are flying out to California this Tuesday and we changed our plans so that we were sure it an actual Hawaiian Air plane. Our experience on Alaska planes has been so awful and Very uncomfortable!!!!
A Hui ho
😭😢😥🥺🖤🖤🖤
What replaces it is a profitable, reliable, sustainable airline.
What happen now to the system so low when you make a reservation?
Your premise at the end of the article that Hawaiian would have ceased flying altogether had Alaska not come along to save it is utterly false. Hawaiian went through two bankruptcies and came back stronger each time, why do you think it would have been different for a third one?
The environment has changed drastically. It’s a mistake to assume that HA would have emerged from another chapter 11. Look at Spirit Airlines’ situation: It’s struggling to survive the bankruptcy process. It’s struggling to emerge and may end up in liquidation. There were recent articles discussing this. Now rumor has it that nobody is interested in acquiring JetBlue due to its debt situation and its future is in doubt.
Hawaiian’s last best hope was a marriage with Alaska. The kinks of this merger are slowly being worked out & I think you’ll see a much stronger HA brand in the years to come on account of Seattle’s management of the brand.
Unless you’re a current or former employee of Hawaiian And familiar with the workings and psychology of the state government I submit your comment is detached from reality. I am both and can say, not with total certainty of course, that its not even certain another bankruptcy would even have happened. Your view that somehow Alaska was our savior is insulting, please stop. It was insulting when we said that of Aloha and it’s insulting for you to say it of Alaska/Hawaiian.
Timothy, I think it’s safe for us to say that Hawaiian Airlines people knew its own financial situation better than anyone and must have realized they were at the end of the rope and took the best option available to them.
They came back so strong after the first bankruptcy they went bankrupt again. Not a good business model.
Correction: After the 2nd bankruptcy we were printing money. What killed us was the state shutting the borders during Covid to tourists. For a company that relies 95% on tourists it was fatal.
Aloha Pualani!
Iconic Hawaiian Company & Memorable Travel Experiences will be dearly missed…
But remembered…
Mahalo,
Puanani & Ohana
I’m feeling very sad about this. Inevitable? Perhaps. But the communication with the public didn’t feel trustworthy and now this happens, another rig pulled out from beneath us. Yes, I would prefer the name, colors, flights, call signs, uniforms-all of it stay the same. Hawai’i is completely opposite of Alaska, geographically, historically, culturally and more. Was it ego that decided to erase all of this airline? It’s bad enough we lost Aloha Airlines. This is all we had remaining.
We used to fly Alaska all the time all up and down the west coast, Alaska to Mexico. We only flew Hawai’ian to and from Hawai’i. It was that important to us. I no longer care for Alaska. What they’ve done removing all the padding from their seats kills my body. It took 3 months to recover from the severe pain and I won’t fly them again because of it. If they do the same degrading to Hawai’ian aircraft seating, they will lose us as passengers and frequent flyers completely. I’m so disappointed.
re: Hawaiian After Full Integration. Am aboard HA836 as an A330 into PHX. My predictions are the hot sandwiches and free rum in economy will vanish overnight. Plus the A321 fleet will start to disappear in favor of Alaska 321s.
Alaska does not have any 321s
I am so sad that we are losing the colors, and the Hawaiian look and feel of traveling. Hawaiian Airlines was always so special. It is globally recognized…. no so much with Alaska. Hawaiian have been such an iconic symbol for Aloha and hospitality.
Imua.
What happens to the Barclay Hawaiian Airlinrs credit card? Will it cease to exist. I haven’t received any word from Barclay’s to date. Also, one of the perks owning that card is 2 free check-in bags, Alaska only offers one free check/in bag if you fly Alaska.
Mahalo
It is sad to see Hawaiian Airlines gone. Hawai’i always had shown their love, support, and aloha all these years and to end like this is not what anyone could expect. The local people are proud to be from Hawaii! We share a unique culture within a culture.
I just wished that Alaska could have used Hawaiian Airlines name, and still kept holding the top ownership silent.
On google flights its the Alaska logo on a Hawaiian flight and it even says Alaska with no mention of Hawaiian until you click on the flight then it says in very small font operated by Alaska as Hawaiian Airlines. Very confusing and diminishes the Hawaiian brand to nearly nothing even though they promised to keep it a separate brand. They need a new marketing team who knows how to navigate the little things that are most visible to the people of Hawaii if they want to be successful.
We traveled to the Big Island on 3/7 from DFW. Our flights home on 3/14 were cancelled due to the storms and were re-booked through Honolulu on 3/15. Our flight from Kona to Honolulu was on Hawaiian. I am saving our boarding passes that still have the HA code. I said goodbye to the plane (as a Hawaiian Air asset) as I boarded. We were leaving Kona the night that the last Aloha Air flight left. Sad days.
How sad. I have flown HI airlines for 35 years because of the aloha of the staff and comfort and on time enough.
I do not feel this sort of loyality to Alaska and now will branch out to American and United.
Hawaiian was unique among airlines, so sorry Alaska didn’t recognize that.
Alaska didn’t recognize the Hawaiian Airlines brand is unique? Dude, Alaska kept the brand. What other acquiring carrier would have done that?
And Alaska is investing $600 million into HA over the next few years. Go experience American & United. Have a feeling you’ll be back….
Most of the changes are actually good news. They’re everything Hawaiian Airlines management got wrong.
The useless website and app – gone!
The horrible call center – gone! (Hawaiian Telcom, are you listening?)
The botched Amadeus upgrade – gone!
What comes in its place ensures we retain our ability to travel.
– A technical system that can manage the basics plus quite a bit more
– A management team looking out for the bottom line
– Membership in a global airline alliance
What remains is what Hawaiian has always done best.
– Fly the skies with aloha
I predicted the fall of Hawaiian Airlines, and pretty much the backslide of Hawaii in general, back in 2020 when Ige was issuing 60,000 outdoor mask citations and arresting 20 yr olds for breaking quarantines.
Also when you all thought the Kapu Breaker lady and Aunti Mopsy were hero’s acting as moral police.
Now you get what you get, I moved and it was the best financial decision ever.
In the end, the people of Hawaii spoke during COVID. Now you suffer the consequences. Just wait til the “plan” doesn’t work and Alaska gives up on this two brand system and Hawaiian is completely erased.
Melissa
Been enjoying and respecting Kaui since the 60’s. Limit tourism to what the current infrastructure can handle. Do it for the residents, do it for the businesses and do it for the tourists. Do not let profits ruin your lovely home.
Timothy, I think it’s safe for us to say that Hawaiian Airlines people knew its own financial situation better than anyone and must have realized they were at the end of the rope and took the best option available to them.
Sorry to see the Hawaiian Airlines go. Just the fact that you take an Alaskan flight from the mainland to go to Hawaii is a mind downer. There is something psychological there.
Marlene, I believe the name “Hawaiian” resonates more favorably with travelers than the name “Alaska”. Think of the visions that those two names conjure up. Warm vs. cold.
I wonder if they ever considered calling the blended airline “Hawaiian”, for the increased cachet?
Alaska does not have any 321s
It’s Alaska not Alaskan and Hawaiian isn’t going anywhere.
Hawaiian jets are beautiful and increase anticipation for a trip to the islands. Alaska jets are unattractive with that freaky-looking Eskimo on the tail. I hope that planes to and from Hawaii continue with the current paint job. Although I am usually “America first”, Airbus planes are typically more comfortable than Boeing planes.
That freaky looking native guy has a lot of history .
John, he may have a lot of history, but Alaska has already begun implementing a new paint scheme which features colors of the Aurora Borealis instead of “Chester”. Eventually, all Alaska planes will feature the new design. There is a YouTube video detailing the change.
Careful Alex. These days many would say freaky looking Eskimois racist. Sure, he’s not as pretty as the lovely Hawaiian girl on the tail but he has the same significance to the people of Alaska as the Hawaiian girl does to Hawaiians.
And on that distinguished looking man on the Alaska tails……. For years my young son thought he was Johnny Cash. lol.
While your article leaves me sad for what has been lost, your final comment perhaps matters the most. Without the Alaska takeover we may/probably would have lost Hawaiian completely, such as happened to Aloha. I suppose we have to look at it that way. 🥲
AS reseveration system is a total customer service nightmare. Last time in the islands it took days to get a call back and a couple of hrs before flight I wanted to cancel in Europe was about to depart. Bad weather at SeaTac has had a history of melting down reservation system call center. Ceo is too greedy to host it a modern clustered cloud based system where sharp increases in system resource demand are easily accomidated.
Need to expand on your comment. I advise people to do more research rather than rely on one person’s bad experience. I have flown on Alaska between 20-40,000 miles/year for the past 15 years. While there have been occasional problems I have had never had the kind of problem you describe. I have had problems on American, Delta and United in the past. Having said all this, problems will probably be worse over the next year because of the war and shortages of fuel.
If they deliver half of those new things promised plus fix the tech and be financially solvent, I’m all in.
Inevitable but I’m actually really sad about this. Hawaiian was Hawaii. Alaska is not. Everyone saying “it’s just a code” or whatever is missing it.
If Hawaii is your home, this feels like losing something local, not just an airline. If you’re not, it probably means very little.
I really love the respectful boarding process Alaska Air offers because it allows early boarding to “Retired Veterans and family members”. I’m really hoping when flying Hawaiian Air that they will offer early boarding to “Retired veterans and family members. Right now Hawaiian only offers early boarding to “Active duty military”. Hopefully this will be a welcome change of policy to honor all veterans and family members. Fingers crossed “Alaska / Hawaiian”!!!
I happened to open my upcoming reservation and saw AS instead of HA and just sat there staring at it. It’s a small thing, but it hit me harder than I expected because that code has always been part of my Hawaii trips. I’m sure I’ll miss HA even while I wish AS the best with this.
I just finished making a reservation with HA for a trip to Maui. It went quite smoothly, including using my points instead of cash. Actually though it was a combination. I booked two tickets in economy using my points (about 70K points), but I chose Extra Comfort seats in their A330, which were charged in dollars ($170 per seat), so we were charged about $700 plus 70K points for a round trip Extra Comfort fare. Since the points have already been converted to Alaska’s system, I assume when the switchover is made, booking will be just as smooth. The bottom line is the booking system worked quite smoothly for us.