What questions would you ask Hawaiian Airlines and Avi Mannis, its Senior VP of Marketing? We had the opportunity to interview Avi recently to discuss future routes, economy seating and changes to their brand.
When asked about new routes in the USA and Canada, Avi wasn’t able to provide any specific answers yet. Hawaiian Airlines, however, recently published potential East Coast and Canada routes (see image below). With regards to the map, Beat of Hawaii noticed no mention of routes like Salt Lake City, Denver and Chicago. Avi said “we’re constantly analyzing a long list of potential routes, including the ones on that prospective map as well as some others that didn’t make it on.” He stated further, “we remain focused on improving air connections to and within the islands of Hawaii.”
Beat of Hawaii inquired about how the Hawaiian Airlines A321-NEO fleet may be used for Kauai and Kona flights going forward. In that regard, Avi indicated “there are significant opportunities to operate our A321-NEO’s to all of our neighbor islands.” Avi also mentioned that no decisions have been made yet on changing design and branding elements on these new planes.
1. A321-NEO first class product:
BOH Question: In a prior interview you mentioned that the 321 first product will be substantially different from the 330 and its lie flat designer seats. What might we anticipate in this regard? Are you using the same designers for the 321’s as you did for the lay flats?
HA Answer: We are not putting flat-bed seats in the premium cabin of our A321-NEO’s. It will be an extremely competitive recliner seat in terms of comfort and living space. The cabin will carry forward the distinctive design language we’ve established with our A330 premium cabins.
2. A321-NEO Economy and Extra Comfort:
BOH Question: A number of our value-conscious visitors have commented that adding more Extra Comfort seating at the cost of economy seating isn’t customer-centric. We understand that about a quarter of 321neo seats will be premium. What are your thoughts on the reduction in economy seating? Having said that let me just add that personally we are big fans of Extra Comfort.
HA Answer: Extra Comfort will be around 24% of the A321-NEO cabin. We’re putting these seats in because of the demand we’ve seen for them from our customers, which I’d argue is a customer-centric decision. The A321-NEO will serve West Coast markets where today we frequently sell out the Extra Comfort cabin on our A330’s. Our goal is to make sure we offer enough of the seating products that all of our guests value.
3. The Hawaiian brand:
BOH Question: You said that the brand is already a decade old and is being rethought. We’ve already seen that in the new website and in the newly introduced A330 First Class cabin. While we love seeing Pualani when we’re in New York or Sydney, and it means a great deal to us being from Hawaii, to those not from here it might be a little different. You also mentioned that the true core of the brand is the front line people. In that regard, HA seems to have nailed it completely. Can you share anything further about your thinking with regards to those aspects of the brand that you see evolving.
HA Answer: The essence of our brand is not going to change—we’re still focused on our core values and delivering warm, authentic service with the spirit of aloha. As we’ve grown and time passes, we’re always looking at elements of our brand’s visual representation to refine them and make them better, truer, bolder expressions of who we are. Going forward, we’ll continue to do that. In addition, we are working on expressing our brand consistently—delivering what we’ve promised our guests every time, at every point in the journey. From signage to technology to training, we’re making significant investments in better service delivery. We’re also focused on fulfilling our brand promise for the much broader base of international guests, from different cultures, that we serve today.
Lastly, there have been a number of questions about whether or not Pualani will remain the symbol of our brand. She will. Personally, I love it when I’m far from home, walking wearily through an airport concourse, and I catch my first glimpse of that tail illuminated outside. She’s in her second incarnation graphically, and may evolve again at some point in the future, but she remains iconic.
4. Hawaiian Airlines website:
BOH Question: Here a question of aesthetics vs. functionality. What’s your take on the speed and usability of the new website when compared with the legacy one? We have had numerous comments from visitors that at this point it does not perform as well. We too find that while for example the large images are beautiful, they do slow the site down some and provide an intermediary response between a customer’s request and the site providing results. Is there anything that you can share regarding the website now, and your vision for it going forward?
HA Answer: It’s important that our website work well and look good. The vast majority of our effort in rebuilding the site went not into aesthetics but into functionality and usability, including a lot of user testing. We clearly had some issues early in the beta test and full release, and opportunities to optimize performance, which we’ve been working on non-stop since launch. On almost all of the concrete measures of performance, like page load times, we are outperforming the old site. We’re getting valuable feedback from our customers and incorporating it into each new release.
The release of the new site was really just the first step—a platform—on which we’re planning to add features and exclusive content to make it the best Hawaii travel planning and booking experience available.
5. Inter-island fleet:
BOH Question: This is regarding the composition of the inter-island fleet going forward and anything you can share about that.
You’ve mentioned HA’s strong commitment to the 717’s. It is, however, a plane that hasn’t been manufactured in 10 years. Only 156 were produced, and Hawaiian is reliant on the after-market for additional planes. The fleet is also reaching an age in years and cycles where replacement seems likely to be somewhere in your thinking.
We also sense there isn’t great satisfaction with turbo prop fleets (thinking about Island Air) except on perhaps the thinnest of routes such as where Ohana flies. Yet from our understanding ATR’s and Q400’s are among the most cost-effective solutions for routes like we have in Hawaii. But also brings to mind the Embraer EJets that Mokulele tried using several years ago which we found very comfortable and appealing. Any comments on the future of the inter-island fleet are much appreciated.
HA Answer: The 717 is still the best-suited aircraft in the world for our inter-island mission, and, while no longer in production, the fleet still has a long useful life ahead of it. The strengths and value of the airplane can be seen in its relative resurgence in popularity among other carriers (while we’ve always thought it was terrific). We were excited to invest in a comprehensive retrofit of our entire 717 fleet last year to improve comfort and personal space. There’s clearly a place for both jets and turboprops in meeting the needs of inter-island travelers, and we’re happy with our 717’s and the ATR 42s of ‘Ohana by Hawaiian.
BOH Comment: And lastly, just a comment on the changes to the 717 interior. Initially we weren’t fans of the concept of adding more seats and going to relatively pad-less hard shell seats. I have to say that after using these quite a number of times, we do find the current arrangement to be more comfortable and spacious overall than the prior configuration. Good job.
HA Answer: Thanks! We worked really hard to make sure the new interior was going to improve comfort for our guests and make a bold brand statement. The additional seats allow us to provide more seats at the times of day that people most want to travel.
More About Avi Mannis, Sr. VP of Marketing at Hawaiian Airlines: Avi has been with the company since 2007. He oversees the airline’s brand management, advertising, promotions, direct marketing, online experience, product development, consumer affairs and reservations departments.
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