With just over a month left before Hawaiian Airlines ceases to exist as a separate operational entity, the airline has filed its fourth round of job cuts since Alaska Air Group’s $1.9 billion acquisition closed. Forty-eight additional nonunion positions at the Koapaka Street headquarters, the Elliott Street cargo hangar, and Terminal 2 at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport will be eliminated in May and June.
The WARN notice submitted to the state of Hawaii on February 27 was not filed by Hawaiian Airlines. It was filed on Alaska Airlines letterhead and signed by Alaska’s Operations out of a Seattle PO Box.
How we got to 418 jobs.
The cuts have come in four rounds. In October 2024, 57 Hawaii-based nonunion positions were eliminated within weeks of the acquisition closing. A second round in January 2025 cut 61 more. The third and largest round, filed in July 2025, eliminated 252 positions. This latest filing adds 48 more, bringing the total to 418 across four rounds. Beat of Hawaii has covered these.
Koapaka Street is not just another office address.
Of the 48 positions being eliminated, 41 are at Koapaka Street headquarters, three at the cargo hangar, and four at Terminal 2. The letter confirms the reductions are permanent but that no facilities are being closed. This has long been the administrative core of Hawaiian Airlines, the place where the carrier functioned as an independent Hawaii-centric company rather than as a Hawaii brand.
How Alaska portrays this.
Alaska has been consistent in pairing these announcements with a counter-narrative: that union hiring has more than offset the losses. The company says it has added over 1,200 Hawaiian Airlines employees in the past 18 months, largely in unionized roles, and plans to hire 800 more Hawaii-based workers, including pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics.
Hawaiian currently employs roughly 6,500 Hawaii-based workers across a total system workforce of about 7,300. Hawaiian and Alaska have also said affected workers are being offered retention bonuses, severance packages, and job placement services, and encouraged to apply for open positions at either carrier.
Those additional numbers are real. But the 418 positions eliminated across four rounds were largely the administrative, operational support, and headquarters roles, now redundant, that helped Hawaiian function as a Hawaii-based company. Those jobs are not being replaced in the same form. Their work is being consolidated, absorbed, or phased out as decision-making and jobs shift toward Seattle.
What travelers should watch next.
April 22 is just over a month away. After that date, Hawaiian-branded flights move exclusively onto Alaska’s reservation system, the HA flight code is gone, and whatever else remained of Hawaiian Airlines as a standalone operation disappears into the larger carrier.
Travelers booking Hawaii flights will do so entirely through Alaska’s systems, with Alaska confirmation codes, Alaska customer service, and Alaska’s app. Alaska has pledged to protect the brand, the culture, and the Hawaii focus. We will be watching closely and reporting what we find.
Lead Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii at the inauguration of Hawaiian’s first Dreamliner.
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If you’ve been to Koapaka you know how much wasted office space there was. Cutting it down to 1 floor is an easy decision.
R.I.P. Pualani. You served the residents of the State of Hawaii beautifully with much aloha and grace. You may be gone, but you will Never0 be forgotten.
Mahalo piha to the numerous Hawaiian Airlines employees who, throughout the years, strived to bring Hawaii to the world and also to the countless millions of guests over the past 96+ years that helped make working for Hawaiian seem more like a family get-together rather than just being at work.
Me ke aloha pumehana. A hui hou kakou.
Oh, man. Enough of the woes of Hawaiian airlines being gobbled up by the big bad mean wolf. Your only other choice would be HA not existing period. The company was driven into the ground by years of poor decisions. Blame Hawaiian Airlines for your loss. While passengers were loving the “experience” the airlines had not turned a profit in years. Your Hawaiian flight experience was about to go under. No one forced Hawaiian to sell to Alaska.
Sorrrry you got so uptight over this. It is still a takeover and what would be the difference between what is happening now and as you say, if they just folded? Nothing……….no one knows if they would have been able to turn the Airlines around or not. I really don’t have access to that crystal ball.
Deborah….maybe people are upset because…this is an example of what we have seen so much of in recent month; sleight of hand misinformation and lies on a daily basis. Alaska’s pitch and promise…early on assured the people of Hawaii that the brand would not be touched. That was never there intention and now its too late.
IMHO this was/is the biggest mistake for the government to allow the buyout of Hawaiian Air. Alaska flew to the islands for years along with Hawaiian. Now, the competition is gone/reduced. Really a boondoggle.
I will be interested to see how our trip to Raratonga next month goes. We fly out on Hawaiian on 4/11 and home on Alaska 4/25. Will there be a difference on the flights? We’ll see.
Hawaiian does not acknowledge most status perks until check in.
For what it is worth, my wife and I are flying from Honolulu to Aukland NZ in early April. I booked the trip on Alaska’s website, but the flight is on “Hawaiian Airlines”, and our reservation is has a separate HA code for the flight deailts, seats, boarding passes, etc., instead of the AKA code. We will eventually end up in Australia. There was no return flight available on Alaska-Hawaiian from Sidney to Honolulu in late April, so we are flying Quantas to return. I thought the reason was seasonal, but maybe Alaska is not going to continue Hawaiian’s Sydney and/or Aukland to Honolulu routes??
How can this really be happening? I keep, naively thinking, something/someone will stop this?! I’m so sad, Alaskan has been terrible, in our families experiences. The increased cost, the increased miles needed for award flights, the reduced elite status with the new atmos, and the complete lack of aloha on the long haul flights : (
They have no intention on keeping the HA brand long term. With everything switching to Alaska after 4/22 (even HA Name tags) its basically softening the blow. They are getting the public used to the Alaska brand before they rip the band aid off. If they truly wanted to keep the brand they could’ve taken the same approach as KLM/Air France who are owned and operated by the same company but have 2 distinct different brands. Even the HA flight attendants who were just hired are not Hawai’i based anymore. They will be Seattle based. Sad news for our home and our beloved airline. They are getting everyone ready to pull the plug.
When are we going to understand this is an economic decision. I am retired from American Airlines. I have been through Four mergers during my 25 years with AA. Take the transfer to SEA or quit. No crying this is real life. Look at the bright side……You can afford to buy a home on the main land. All airline employees get free/low cost non rev travel.