Hawaiian Airlines Unveils First Flagship Dreamliner

DALLAS — Hawaiian Airlines (HA) formally unveiled its new flagship aircraft and its name on Friday as the carrier showed off its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to employees, guests, and media at a ceremony in Honolulu.

“This day has been a long time coming – in fact, today marks almost six years to the date when we first announced our investment in the 787-9 as the new flagship fleet for our company,” said Peter Ingram, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, during his welcome remarks.

“Mahalo to Boeing for working collaboratively with us as we adjusted the delivery schedule and to our entire 787-9 team for managing our project and getting our first aircraft to its new home here in Honolulu.”

The aircraft was delivered the previous week and flew nonstop from Charleston, South Carolina, to Honolulu. This is the second 787-9 that Boeing has built for HA; the first, which has not yet been delivered (N780HA MSN 66428 l/n 1097), has been in storage and rework since it rolled off the final assembly line back in 2021. N781HA (MSN 66429 l/n 1182) was delivered first, as the N780HA was seen back in Everett late last week.

Boeing leadership joined HA and its employees at Charles I. Elliott Maintenance and Cargo Facility for a special ceremony and formal Hawaiian blessing.

“From the moment you step onboard, you’ll see that the Hawaiian culture is woven into the design of this 787 Dreamliner. It immediately connects passengers to the beauty of the islands,” said Darren Hulst, vice president of commercial marketing at Boeing. “It’s an honor to know this airplane will bring Hawai’i to the world for years to come.”

A Hawaiian Welcome

Approximately 1,500 employees and guests were on hand for the ceremony and aircraft tours. HA is launching an all-new interior on its Boeing 787-9 fleet that nicely incorporates different things from the Hawaiian Islands.

“You can tell right away when you first step on the aircraft that a lot of thought went into it; elements of Hawaiʻi are evident in all corners of the plane,” said Charlie Morris, an Airbus A330 first officer at Hawaiian Airlines who will soon transition to flying the 787-9s. “I’m extremely excited to start flying it and to get the show on the road.”

Revealing the Name

A tradition for HA is that it gives culturally significant names to all aircraft in its fleet. The carrier’s widebody long-haul fleet uses names from stars and constellations used in the traditions of Polynesian navigators. N781HA’s official name was unveiled as Kapuahi.

Kapuahi is a giant red star known as Aldebaran in Western astronomy. It is the brightest star in the constellation Taurus and appears in the Pacific sky alongside Makali’i—a celestial cluster of great importance in Hawaiian storytelling, wayfinding, and agriculture.

“As we journey across the Pacific and take people to and from Hawaiʻi on our planes, it is in the same spirit and tradition of Hawaiian voyaging. Our kinship with voyaging is rooted in our past, grounds us in our present, and guides us toward our future. This connection is reflected in the design of our Boeing 787-9s, which further this effort to mingle with the stars and look to the constellations for direction as wayfinders often do in the canoe,” explained Debbie Nakanelua-Richards, director of community and cultural relations at Hawaiian Airlines, in her remarks.

The names for Hawaiian’s Boeing 787 fleet were chosen under the guidance of three Polynesian Voyaging Society Hōkūleʻa captains: Kalā Babayan Tanaka, Catherine “Cat” Fuller, and Shantell De Silva.

Preparing for Entry into Service

Hawaiian Airlines will spend the next two months conducting familiarization flights between Hawaii and the North American stations it currently serves. The first scheduled passenger flight will be conducted on April 15 when the carrier debuts it on the Honolulu to San Francisco route.

N780HA is expected to be delivered and named in March. The airline plans to expand its Boeing 787 service to Los Angeles on May 15, adding it on the HA3 turn. The following day Phoenix will get its first 787 service, by the end of the year the Honolulu based carrier expects to have three of its 12 787’s on order.

The long-awaited arrival of the Dreamliner adds to recent milestones for HA, including becoming the first major carrier to deploy Starlink Wi-Fi, which is currently being added to its Airbus A321neo-fleet, getting ready to combine with Seattle-based carrier Alaska Airlines (AS) announced late last year its intentions to buy HA and celebrating the carriers 95^th anniversary this November.

Ingram added, “Ultimately, the 787-9 is more than just a new aircraft. It represents an exciting growth phase for our company as we build on our 95 years of service and connects more people with Aloha. I am excited for you to be among the first to see it and even more excited for our employees to see it for the first time along with their ‘ohana. They have waited a long time for this special day.”

Featured Image: Hawaiian Airlines’ first Boeing 787-9 sits on the ramp in Honolulu as the sunrises behind it. Photo provided by Hawaiian Airlines

https://airwaysmag.com/interview-hawaiian-ceo-peter-ingram/