Kahi Pacarro, executive director of Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i, co-founded the nonprofit organization with six friends and his wife Louise Pacarro, a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant. Together, they host the biggest coastal cleanups in the state to educate local communities about the impacts of plastic pollution and show how we can all play a role in protecting the ocean that gives our islands life.

Credit: Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i

Kahi Pacarro, executive director of Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i, co-founded the nonprofit organization with six friends and his wife Louise Pacarro, a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant.

Hawaiian Airlines has been a dedicated supporter of Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i since 2015. We’ve provided more than 100 flights to transport their team to some of the hardest hit coastlines around the state. To share their story, we asked Kahi to give our readers an inside look at the problem of plastics, micro-plastic specifically, and how they harm the food chain.

Keep reading to learn more from Kahi and his organization’s work against plastic…

The tiny pieces of plastic pollution, called micro-plastics, are the result of society’s overuse of plastic, and with a new batch coming in with every wave, the high-tide line looked like a kaleidoscopic snake. Micro-plastics are plaguing every Windward (east-facing) beach in Hawai‘i, from the most southern point of the Hawai‘i Island and all the way to Kaua‘i. Their impact is profound and extends beyond the major islands into the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument up to Kure Atoll. 

Credit: Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i

Crews removing washed-up debris from Kure Atoll's shoreline

All the plastic we use – regardless of how we dispose or think we recycle it – has the chance of making it into the sea. Once in the ocean, the sun photodegrades it, making it brittle and, throughout this process, releasing climate-changing gases like methane and ethylene into the atmosphere. 

The lipophilic (fat-loving) nature of plastics causes them to attract and absorb persistent organic pollutants (POPs), like oil-based fertilizers, gasoline, motor oils, pesticides and more. This process is like when you put your spaghetti leftover in a plastic Tupperware; the red stain left on the container from the sauce is almost impossible to get out. That’s because the oil in the sauce is bound with the plastic container. When fish eat micro-plastics or other larger pieces, the POP’s can transfer from the plastic into the fatty tissue of fish. As those fish are eaten by larger fish, the toxins become increasingly concentrated and biomagnify up the food chain until those fish hit our plates.

Credit: Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i

Micro-plastics collected during one of SCH's large-scale beach cleanups on O‘ahu

As co-founders of Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i (SCH), we are constantly working to educate consumers from around the world about the impact of their purchases. We inspire local communities to care for their coastlines by hosting super fun, huge coastal cleanups, offering free educational programs, hosting team-building cleanup events for corporate companies, providing waste diversion services for events, and helping others start their own eco-events. We’ve also extended our reach, teaching coastal communities beyond our shores on how they can protect their oceans through our social media campaigns and most recent SCH West Coast Road Trip.

However, Louise and I didn’t grow SCH overnight. Our organization started in 2010 as an idea with six friends at our living room table and soared to greater heights with the help of thousands of passionate volunteers and a handful of dedicated local companies like Hawaiian Airlines.

Credit: Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i

Hawaiian Airlines has been integral in our ability to get this message out across the state by providing the resources we need to get from our home base in Honolulu to Hawai‘i Island, Maui, Moloka‘i, Lāna‘i, and Kaua‘i. By providing manpower and donating flights to our crew, we’ve been able to execute cleanups and educational outreach involving thousands of local residents and visitors. Last month, we helped over 700 employees from Hawaiian Airlines and Bank of Hawaii remove 6,240 pounds of debris from the coastline between Makapu’u and Bellows. The main culprit was plastic in the form of common throwaways (toothbrushes, single-use utensils, water bottles, etc.), scattered piles of micro-plastic and still-identifiable remnants of the commercial fishing industry (nets, buoys, oyster spacers, etc.).

Credit: Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i

Hawaiian Airlines teamed up with Bank of Hawaii and SCH for September's International Coastal Cleanup Day. This photo was taken of the crew and the trash they collected at just one of several beaches that line East O‘ahu's coastline.

Our organization is proud of the work that we have accomplished, including removing (thus far) 416,968 pounds of trash from our Islands’ coastlines, thanks to the help of 23,871 volunteers and Hawaiian Airlines’ sponsorship. We’re even more stoked to know that we’ve engaged more local youth this year than ever before. By year's end, we will have given our educational presentation to over 10,000 students across the state with almost half of those in underserved communities!

Credit: Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i, Klineworks Designs and Wasiswas

A recent campaign hosted by SCH to educate consumers about the impact of plastics on marine life

Being able to fly on Hawaiian Airlines and return to these coastlines year after year makes a difference. We’ve created a statewide ‘ohana. Communities look forward to our return and we can’t wait to get back. The upwelling of support for cleaner coastlines across the state is humbling and what is needed to sustain our coastlines.

For more information about our organization and how you can get involved on your next free weekend or trip to Hawai‘i, please visit www.sustainablecoastlineshawaii.org. 

We hope you’ll join us in supporting SCH's mission and protecting Hawai‘i’s world-famous beaches. Here’s a look at some of the biggest and most impactful cleanups their crew completed this year:

Moloka‘i Cleanup

417 volunteers removed 45,000 pounds of debris from Moloka‘i. The trash was sent to O‘ahu to be recycled and burned for energy.

Credit: Jeff Hawe

East O‘ahu Earth Day Cleanup

1,548 volunteers removed over 7,000 pounds of debris from the Waimānalo coastline.

Credit: Ken G. Kosada

Kaka‘ako Cleanup

185 volunteers removed 3,300 pounds of garbage and marine debris, including over 2,000 cigarette butts from Kaka'ako, located just outside of Downtown Honolulu.

Credit: Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i

If you could launch a route from Hawai‘i to anywhere in the world, where would you go? The answer isn’t always as effortless as the one in your imagination. In the real world, the decision takes years to come to fruition, with lots of research, coordination and patience required.

The most recent leap you might have heard at Hawaiian Airlines was our announcement of nonstop service between Boston Logan International (BOS) and Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International (HNL) airports. On April 4, it is set to become the nation’s longest domestic flight at 5,095 miles, surpassing the previous record holder: our other East Coast flight of 4,983 miles between HNL and New York’s John F. Kennedy International (JFK) Airport.

Brent Overbeek, senior vice president of revenue management and network planning at Hawaiian Airlines, gave us the inside scoop on what it takes to introduce Pualani to a new market. From crunching numbers to choosing the perfect aircraft for the job, it’s no easy feat. So, let’s get started – below is our step-by-step guide to launching a route. 

The First Step: The Big Decision

Reading the Data

First things first, we must ask ourselves what is the next best step for our airline? When it comes to choosing to expand a current route or taking on a completely new one, the answer is all in the research. Hawaiian’s Network Planning team is constantly evaluating current markets for service changes and exploring potential markets. The magic doesn’t happen overnight though – on average, we spend three to five years (for BOS, we started the conversation back in 2015) researching before a new route’s official launch.  

In June 2018, we celebrated our inaugural flight between Long Beach, California, and Honolulu. The route was a historical moment for our company, as it marked the launch of one of our first A321neos into the skies.

Predicting the Future

When we study a potential route, a multitude of factors help us determine its chances for success:

• Local market size: The biggest indicator in our forecast, it tells us how many people are currently flying between markets. In the case of Boston, data revealed that nearly 500 people fly between eastern New England and the Hawaiian Islands on any given day.
• Macroeconomic indicators: These include gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, average disposable income and drive time to airport alternatives. A good new market would likely have to have a strong, growing and sustainable traffic base. In 2017, the market between BOS and HNL generated about $76 million in ticket sales.
• Market fluctuations: Is the market growing or shrinking? Essentially, what is the long-term prospect for the local economy?
• Connectivity: To make our guests’ trip as seamless as possible, we need to consider how we can connect to our different routes within our own network and opportunities to leverage our partners’ networks as well.
• Competitor schedules and product offerings: Wherever we fly, our brand promise is to provide superior value to travelers who will enjoy our Hawaiian hospitality, leading on-time performance and unmatched Hawai‘i expertise. In the case of Boston, we will become the first airline to offer non-stop service to Hawai‘i, five days a week. 

Giving the Route Wings

The next step is identifying the best plane to safely and comfortably transport our guests to our island home. Each of our aircraft types is optimized for a different geography and mission. The wide-body Airbus A330s are designed for larger long-haul markets (significant cargo demand is a plus); the narrow-body Airbus A321s are best in class for the U.S. West Coast’s mid-size markets and non-stop service to our Neighbor Islands; the Boeing B717s are exceptional for high-frequency Neighbor Island flying, and the turbo-prop ATR-42s can serve smaller Neighbor Island markets. When they arrive in 2021, the B787-9 “Dreamliner” will allow us to fly faster and longer, while burning less fuel per seat than the A330s. Our research on possible B787-9 markets is well underway!

The verdict for BOS: our A330 is the best aircraft for the job and the only plane that can travel the 5,095 miles between BOS and HNL when we launch service in April.

Match Making

No matter where you place your finger on a map, chances are you’ll point to a market with no shortage of people saying they’d love to fly to Hawai‘i. But after years of research, out of all the markets in the East Coast (i.e. Washington D.C., Baltimore, Atlanta, Toronto), Boston checked all our boxes (listed under Predicting the Future) and became another perfect choice for our authentic Hawaiian hospitality to thrive.

The city is also the largest market without non-stop service to/from Hawai‘i – until April 2019, when we launch our first flight. 

The Second Step: Crossing the “T”s and Dotting the “I”s

The Price is Right

We’ve sealed the deal and selected a new route. The next step is looking at pricing and establishing a base fare for the route. This takes a combination of art and science, and we always seek to offer the most value to our guests. Every market is unique, and the competitive landscape is equally diverse. With that in mind, we adapt our pricing accordingly.

It’s a Date

In terms of scheduling, our biggest priority is establishing an appropriate flight frequency for the market. We know our guests like options, so when demand justifies it, we seek to provide as much frequency as possible (think Los Angeles, Northern California’s Bay Area, and Japan). In developing mid-sized markets, where demand isn’t quite robust enough for daily service, traffic data helps guide our frequency and schedule.  

With Boston, for example, we will offer ample service around the weekend since that’s when most guests want to begin or end their long-haul vacation. If traffic exceeds our forecasted demand, we would begin looking at increasing to daily service.

Hawaiian Airlines President and CEO Peter Ingram crossed the "T" at Boston Logan International Airport in September after we announced our service to our second East Coast city.

For those wondering, here’s our current set schedule:

FROM HNL to BOS:

Starting with the inaugural flight on Thursday, April 4, HA90 (named in celebration of our 90^th anniversary starting November 2018) will depart HNL every day but Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:45 p.m. and arrive at BOS the following morning at 6 a.m.

FROM BOS to HNL:

Flight HA89 will depart BOS every day but Wednesday and Thursday at 8:55 a.m., except for Friday flights, which will depart at 8 a.m., arriving into HNL at 2:35 p.m. and 1:40 p.m. respectively. 

Pro Tip: The arrival and departure times for many of our medium and long-haul flights are timed around hotel check-in and check-out to give travelers the afternoon to explore O‘ahu or connect to one of Hawaiian’s seven neighbor island destinations.

The Third Step: Launching Operations

Getting the Party Started

Our first steps in building our presence in a new city begin with getting the local communities familiarized with our brand of authentic Hawaiian hospitality. As Hawai‘i’s destination carrier, we represent the Aloha state, and our ‘ohana’s dedication to welcoming our guests with warm hospitality from the moment they step into our terminal sets us apart from our competitors.

If the airport is slot restricted, we must start with engaging the airport and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to secure our preferred gates. Other key operational steps include determining our staffing, ground handling and infrastructure needs at the new airport. 

Aloha Tokyo! Hawaiian Airlines made its debut in Japan with the launch of service to Haneda Airport in November 2010. Japan continues to be one of the fastest growing markets for travel to the Hawaiian Islands.

Working Against the Clock

We’ve picked the market, the aircraft, the frequency and the dates. Now, when do we break the news, start selling tickets, and start flying?

For a new long-haul route, we typically announce new service and open for sales about six or more months prior to the inaugural flight to give our guests enough time to book their trips in advance. For shorter markets, say service between Kona and Līhu‘e, the window between announcement and launch can be significantly compressed as we’d have fewer seats to fill and travelers wouldn’t book that far in advance. 

Outside of our BOS route, check out a small sample of our most memorable flights in Hawaiian Airlines history:

November 11, 1929: Hilo, Island of Hawai‘i

Our predecessor Inter-Island Airways inaugurated service with the historic launch of service between Honolulu and Hilo with the Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker.

November 11, 1950: Hana, Maui

Guests once gathered around our DC-3 jet to celebrate the inaugural service between Honolulu and Hana and the opening of Hana Airport. The flight took off on 1949, though the route was later discontinued in March 1973.

1969: Kamuela, Island of Hawaiʻ i

In 1969, we revamped our service to Kamuela on the Island of Hawaiʻi to include our DC-9 jets. This service was eventually discontinued after August 1981.

March 1, 1987: Kapalua, West Maui

Passengers board the plane of our first flight out of West Maui's Kapalua Airport (JHM), which was operated by Hawaiian Airlines. At the same time, the airport opened for business and was used exclusively by our airlines' DHC- 7 aircraft.