Hawaiian Airlines and Arizona State University (ASU) have awarded the first of eight $10,000 grants under the New Horizons Scholarship Fund to two Native Hawaiian undergraduates enrolled in the W. P. Carey School of Business’s Information Systems program. Hauʻoli Kalipi, a sophomore and graduate from Hilo High School on the Island of Hawai‘i, and Preston Naʻalelalani Ponteras, a senior and a Kamehameha Schools graduate from Oʻahu, each received $10,000 last month in college tuition assistance to encourage their journey toward information technology careers.

"We are incredibly grateful for this new scholarship to support our students from Hawai’i in partnership with Hawaiian Airlines,” says Ohad Kadan, Charles J. Robel Dean and W. P. Carey Distinguished Chair in Business. “Hauʻoli and Preston were selected based on their exceptional academic performance and remarkable contributions to the W. P. Carey and ASU community. The partnership with Hawaiian Airlines embodies our commitment to academic excellence while taking responsibility for the well-being of our community.”

Image credit: Arizona State University

In a thank you letter, Kalipi shared that her goal is to use her degree to help Hawaiʻi businesses like Hawaiian Airlines or go into sports analytics. “I am proud of how far I have come academically and professionally and to represent the department as a Native Hawaiian student,” she wrote. “I am currently an honors college student and a W.P. Carey Leadership Academy member. I have also recently started working as a data assistant to begin my professional career.”

Ponteras also expressed pride in calling Hawaiʻi home and representing his community in Arizona. “As someone who was born and raised in Hawaiʻi, it is important that I put on my best to represent the islands in everything that I do,” he wrote. “For my accomplishments to be recognized by Hawaiian Airlines is a blessing and another accomplishment in my book. This scholarship makes me excited for the next time I get to step onto their aircraft for my next journey back home.”

Image credit: Arizona State University

Hauʻoli Kalipi (second from left), Matthew Chimbos, managing director of information technology at Hawaiian Airlines (center right), and Preston Naʻalelalani Ponteras (right) pictured with ASU Mascot Sparky the Sun Devil at the 2023 ʻOhana Day, sponsored by Hawaiian Airlines.

Hawaiian’s partnership with ASU, one of the largest U.S. universities, was formalized in January with the establishment of the New Horizons Scholarship: a $100,000 fund composed of eight $10,000 grants dedicated toward Hawaiʻi students pursuing IT pathways and a $20,000 sponsorship of ASU’s annual ʻOhana Day, a gathering for Hawaiʻi students and their families. The goal: invest directly into the future workforce to help meet the growing demand for skilled IT professionals at Hawaiian Airlines and across Hawaiʻi.

“Meeting Hauʻoli and Preston and congratulating in person them was a thrill; it's clear they are phenomenal students with enormous talent,” shared Matthew Chimbos, managing director of information technology at Hawaiian Airlines, after attending ASU’s 2023 ʻOhana Day. “ASU has been a great partner in providing impactful and relevant learning opportunities to Hawaiʻi students interested in the burgeoning IT sector, and I hope to see our scholarship recipients at Hawaiian Airlines in the future.”

Hawaiian is aggressively investing in Hawaiʻi-focused career pathways as it enhances its IT systems and prepares for a new growth phase.

Currently, 702 Hawaiʻi students attend Arizona State University, which has an average 143,000 student population and continues to grow annually. The W. P. Carey Department of Information Systems is consistently ranked top 20 in the nation for both undergraduate and graduate programs by U.S. News & World Report and focuses on fostering skills in information systems and data analytics skills for real-world application.
 

Image credit: Honolulu Community College

Hawaiian last month also provided a $100,000 gift to the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) to establish a scholarship for students attending information technology, computer science, cybersecurity and related computer technology programs at one of the UH System’s three four-year universities. Last year, Hawaiian announced an innovative program with Honolulu Community College in which airline instructors teach classes for the school’s Aeronautics Maintenance Program, and it also joined UH’s IT/Cyber Leap-Start Experience Excelerator Program to offer valuable on-the-job training to local students. 

AUG. 25, 2:00 PM HST 

This post served to provide media with timely information related to Hawaiian's response in the immediate aftermath of the wildfires. As of today, time-stamped updates will no longer be shared on this page. Manaʻo readers are encouraged to subscribe to the blog for the latest stories and updates on how Hawaiian is supporting West Maui throughout its long road to recovery.

Previous Updates

AUG. 18, 3:00 PM HST 

Hawaiian Airlines continues to open the bellies of its aircraft to assist organizations embarking on heroic relief efforts – including Maui Humane Society, which has worked around the clock to save the lives of animals and pets injured, lost or displaced during the West Maui wildfires. Since the fires erupted last week, Hawaiian has carried over 200 donated kennels to Kahului, including a shipment of over 100 crates for Island Pet Movers to assist Maui Humane Society with moving pets off the island.

To read more about Hawaiian's movement of donated kennels, click here. 

Five donated kennels being loaded into the cargo hold of flight HA206 to Kahului from Honolulu.

Twelve thousand HawaiianMiles members have donated nearly 107 million miles to the American Red Cross of Hawaii’s West Maui emergency response. As of today, 137 million miles, which includes Hawaiian’s match of 30 million miles and is equivalent to 18,000 flights, have been raised to help mobilize the nonprofit's volunteers and personnel supporting West Maui residents affected by the disaster. 

For information on how to donate miles and other impactful ways to mālama Maui, click here.

AUG. 17, 11:30 AM HST 

In answering a colleague’s call for help, Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants mobilized members of a Facebook group to send roughly 500 pounds of items to Maui families in need. Since Sunday, Hawaiian’s cargo team has accepted approximately 3,900 pounds of employee shipments, with the most common items being baby essentials, dry and canned food items, clothing, toiletries and empty gas cans. To read more about this effort, click here.

Flight Attendants Curtis Kawamura, Anna Sable, Erika Ledesma and Carley Tomagan

As of Aug. 16, a special Maui relief fund under Hawaiian Airlines’ Wings of Hope program, which enables the carrier's employees to support each other during times of severe hardship, has collected 398 donations totaling $153,800 for teammates whose homes were lost or damaged in the West Maui wildfires. Wings of Hope is open year-round for financial contributions and funds are received in the form of payroll deductions, checks and cash donations from employees and board members.

AUG. 16, 4:10 PM HST

In less than 24 hours after Hawaiian Airlines announced an expanded partnership with Hawaiʻi Foodbank and Maui Food Bank, the carrier’s Community and Cultural Relations team coordinated a company-wide food and supply drive to support the West Maui community.

Team Kōkua volunteers working the donation drop-off site at Hawaiian's cargo facility.

Seventy employees yesterday volunteered with Team Kōkua to staff collection sites at the airline’s corporate headquarters and Charles I. Elliott Maintenance and Cargo Facility, loaded vans with donations from their colleagues and worked at Hawaiʻi Foodbank to organize donated items for those impacted by the wildfires.

Team Kōkua volunteers organizing pantry donations at the Hawaiʻi Foodbank.

By the end of the day, over 10,000 pounds (about half the weight of a school bus) of goods were donated to Hawaiʻi Foodbank and Maui Food Bank for people displaced by the wildfires. Items included baby formula and food, feminine products, diapers, toiletries, canned proteins and meals, rice and grains, non-perishable snacks, peanut butter and meal bars. 

To read more about Hawaiian's food and supply drive, click here.

Firefighters with the Honolulu Fire Department at the arrival gate of HA185 in Honolulu following a deployment to Maui.

Hawaiian Airlines is also grateful for the work of first responders and continues to transport fire and police personnel – including members of the Honolulu Fire Department (HFD) and the Federal Fire Department – to and from Kahului to help West Maui communities affected by the wildfires.

For HFD's news release on its recent Maui deployment, click here.

AUG. 14, 3 PM HST

Hawaiian today announced it is working with Hawaiʻi Foodbank and Maui Food Bank on food collection and distribution. Hawaiian will donate $150,000 ($50,000 each to Hawaiʻi Foodbank, Maui Food Bank and the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation) to further support the organizations’ wildfire relief work.

Image credit: Hawaiʻi Foodbank

Disaster relief boxes assembled by the Hawaiʻi Foodbank.

In addition, Hawaiian has established the Mālama Maui Desk to respond more efficiently to the many organizations and individuals seeking flight, cargo or volunteer support. The request form can be found at www.hawaiianairlines.com/malamamaui, a new website dedicated to Maui relief information. In addition to the Mālama Maui Desk, the page serves as a resource on ways that our community in Hawaiʻi and globally can help respond to the tragic wildfires.

The carrier is also supporting Maui Ola: A benefit concert for Maui, a live concert and broadcast fundraiser at 5 p.m. on Aug. 20 at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, by flying in artists, event organizers and participants, and providing volunteers.

To read more about Hawaiian Airlines' next phase of support for the Maui community, click here.

AUG. 11, 7:15 PM HST

A message from our CEO:

Additonal resources:

• Travel waiver for Maui travel due to fires
• Donate HawaiianMiles to American Red Cross of Hawaii
• Learn about and support the American Red Cross of Hawaii's wildfire response efforts
• Donate funds to Hawaiʻi Community Foundation's Maui Strong Fund

AUG. 11, 11:30 AM HST

Hawaiian Airlines today added an additional flight from Kahului to Honolulu to support the ongoing evacuation of displaced visitors and residents. We will also fly our full regular schedule of some 25 roundtrips between Honolulu and Maui today and into the weekend. 

Hawaiian transported more than 6,600 people out of Maui yesterday and expects to carry more than 17,000 visitors and residents out of the island in the 72 hours since the fires broke out. Our priority has been to keep moving people safely from and within our islands and facilitate the work of federal, state and local agencies. 

Hawaiian is grateful for the overwhelming generosity of some 10,000 HawaiianMiles members who have donated miles equivalent to more than 9,500 interisland flights to the American Red Cross of Hawaii. Hawaiian has provided the equivalent of another 4,000 free flights for use by volunteers and community members in need.

Members throughout our network have also expressed a desire to drop off boxes of supplies at our stations to be shipped to Maui. While we are beyond grateful for our customers' willingness to give and continue to accept essential cargo, we encourage that donations be made to organizations best equipped to manage relief such as the American Red Cross.

AUG. 10, 1 PM HST

The images of Lāhainā burning – enveloped in an impenetrable cloud of black smoke – have been difficult to witness. Our hearts are with our community members, employees and all those devastated by the Maui fires. As Hawaiʻi’s hometown carrier, we pledge to support disaster response efforts until the demanding work of recovery is complete.

“This is an incredibly tragic and sad event, and our hearts go out to everyone impacted on Maui and especially those who have lost loved ones,” said Peter Ingram, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines. “Our teams across our operation are working tirelessly to help those affected, including our nearly 500 colleagues who call Maui home. We send our deepest condolences to those impacted by the fires and will continue to leverage every resource we have to support the Maui community."

Hawaiian Airlines Cargo is proud to help transport essential medical supplies to Maui and support first responders in providing critical medical care to communities impacted by the wildfires.

Here’s how Hawaiian Airlines has supported response efforts in the first 24 hours:

Facilitating essential travel

• Ran a full schedule of flights in and out of Maui, including nine additional flights scheduled for today (Aug. 10) and nine that operated yesterday from Kahului to Honolulu to support evacuation efforts. We flew 12,718 seats in and out of Kahului yesterday.

• Made every main cabin seat from Kahului to Honolulu available at $19 through Aug. 14, so costs would not be an obstacle to those needing to leave.

• Transported 5,786 guests out of Maui yesterday.

• Issued a travel waiver to allow guests with travel to and from Maui scheduled through Aug. 31 flexibility to change or refund flights.

Team Kōkua volunteers were deployed at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport to assist travelers arriving from Maui.

Carrying critical cargo

• Set aside dedicated space on our aircraft to support essential cargo, including life-saving blood and medical supplies, medication, food, water, amenity kits and infrastructure equipment for telecommunications repairs.
• Donated and shipped soft goods and catering items, including 300 bottles of Mananalu water, 550 sandwiches, 3,000 snack items, 1,600 amenity kits, mattress pads, lounging pillows and other supplies, for evacuees arriving at Kahului Airport.

Yesterday, 1,600 amenity kits were loaded onto HA1106 to be distributed to those displaced by the Maui fires.

Caring for guests and employees

• Activated Team Kōkua, Hawaiian’s employee volunteer group, to support guests and staff in Honolulu and Kahului.
• Deployed employee members of the Hawaiian Airlines Emergency Assistance Response Team (HEART) to work at the Honolulu Convention Center and other shelter facilities for visitors.
• Activated employee support resources for team members on Maui and elsewhere who have been personally affected by these tragic events.

HEART members listening to a volunteer briefing by the American Red Cross and Hawaiian Airlines before serving at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center's temporary shelter.

Partnering for relief efforts

• Donated seats to first responders, including City and County of Honolulu firefighters to help Maui stations battle the ongoing wildfires.
• Nearly 90 million miles (equivalent to 12,000 interisland flights) in joint donation with our HawaiianMiles members to the American Red Cross of Hawaii to facilitate travel for volunteers, support personnel and community members in need.
• We continue to accept donations of HawaiianMiles on behalf of the American Red Cross of Hawaii on our website. To donate your unused miles, click here.

A cargo agent loading boxes of sandwiches on a flight to Kahului.

Hawaiian Airlines continues to open the bellies of its aircraft to assist organizations embarking on heroic relief efforts – including Maui Humane Society, which has worked around the clock to save the lives of animals and pets injured, lost or displaced during the West Maui wildfires.

Since the fires erupted last week, Hawaiian has carried over 200 donated kennels to Kahului, including a shipment of over 100 crates for Island Pet Movers to assist Maui Humane Society with moving pets off the island.

Maui Humane Society remains focused on meeting the West Maui community’s extensive need for emergency supplies and response, including life-saving veterinary and pet reunification services, and helping pets remain under the care of their owners. They are also equipping West Maui residents who are trying to relocate their pets with airline-approved kennels and travel health certifications at no additional cost.

Five donated kennels being loaded into the cargo hold of flight HA206 to Kahului from Honolulu.

“We are willing to help and provide whatever West Maui pet owners need right now, especially if they're flying off the island,” said Katie Shannon, director of marketing and communications at Maui Humane Society.

“It’s admirable that, despite the heartbreak and urgency that Maui Humane Society continues to face, it remains steadfast in doing everything it can to save animal lives,” said Patrick Rosa, managing director of cargo at Hawaiian Airlines. “We’ll continue to prioritize cargo space for the movement of critical supplies, including kennels, and support the heroes caring for and saving Valley Isle pets during this tragedy.”

Donated kennels at Hawaiian Airlines cargo facility at Los Angeles International Airport

To help fund Maui Humane Society’s work in saving pets affected by the West Maui wildfires, click here.

To learn more about other ways you can mālama Maui, click here.

For updates on Hawaiian AIrlines' efforts to support West Maui, click here.

It started with a callout on a private Facebook group page, titled HAL Flight Attendant Mamas, where, on a typical day, "FA mamas and mamas-to-be" swap tips and answer questions about all things related to childcare. But on Aug. 13, Maui flight attendant Anna Sable posted an urgent request for baby supplies after the island's only Walmart, Costco and Target reported supply shortages following the West Maui wildfires.   

Flight Attendants Curtis Kawamura, Anna Sable, Erika Ledesma and Carley Tomagan

The next day, flight attendants Erika Ledesma and Curtis Kawamura, a member of the group (and stay-at-home parent), met Sable – who had flown to Honolulu – and several other Oʻahu teammembers at Hawaiian’s cargo facility with dozens of boxes of baby items, including food, formula, wipes and diapers. Leveraging Hawaiian’s employee shipping program, the group sent roughly 500 pounds of items to families in need. Sable took the return flight to Kahului to ensure immediate delivery to local families.  
 

Kawamura packs baby food to ship to Maui

"We needed to get these items to Maui right away because some of the families, they couldn't wait any longer," Kawamura said. "With limited supplies available on the island, there are families outside of West Maui that are in need too, and we know that through Anna the supplies will be delivered directly to those requesting it." 

Shipment organized by "HA Flight Attendant Mamas" arrived at Kahului

Since Sunday, Hawaiian’s cargo team has accepted approximately 3,900 pounds of employee shipments, with the most common items being baby essentials, dry and canned food items, clothing, toiletries and empty gas cans.  

Kawamura added, "There are so many of our fellow employees who have been affected in Maui, and working for Hawaiian has been a huge blessing during this time with many of us using our benefits to travel back and forth to volunteer, or visit impacted family members, or ship urgent supplies.  We're fortunate that we're given so many opportunities to help our fellow employees." 

In less than 24 hours after Hawaiian Airlines announced an expanded partnership with Hawaiʻi Foodbank and Maui Food Bank, the carrier’s Community and Cultural Relations team coordinated a company-wide food and supply drive to support the West Maui community. 

Team Kōkua volunteers organizing pantry donations at the Hawaiʻi Foodbank.

Seventy employees yesterday volunteered with Team Kōkua to staff collection sites at the airline’s corporate headquarters and Charles I. Elliott Maintenance and Cargo Facility, loaded vans with donations from their colleagues and worked at Hawaiʻi Foodbank to organize donated items for those impacted by the wildfires.

By the end of the day, over 10,000 pounds (about half the weight of a school bus) of goods were donated to Hawaiʻi Foodbank and Maui Food Bank for people displaced by the wildfires. Items included baby formula and food, feminine products, diapers, toiletries, canned proteins and meals, rice and grains, non-perishable snacks, peanut butter and meal bars.

Team Kōkua volunteers working the donation drop-off site at Hawaiian's cargo facility.

“We’re blown away by the incredible turnout of donations from the Hawaiian Airlines ‘ohana yesterday, especially with such short notice,” said Jennifer Onishi, director of corporate relations and partnerships at Hawaiʻi Foodbank.

“Meeting the moment means moving quickly and every act of mālama (care) matters right now,” said Debbie Nakanelua-Richards, director of community and cultural relations at Hawaiian Airlines. “We put out the call for help with our food and supply drive and, without hesitation, our employees jumped to action to do what they could to kōkua (help) West Maui.”

Debbie Nakanelua-Richards and Manakō Tanaka of Hawaiian's Community and Cultural Relations Team operating the donation van.

Hawaiian will continue to deploy volunteers to help Hawaiʻi Foodbank with sorting and packaging donations being sent to the Maui Food Bank.

To learn more about the partnership, click here.

To donate to or volunteer with the Hawaiʻi Foodbank, click here.