As we bid aloha to 2020 and reflect on the exceptional hardships and challenges it brought upon so many of us at Hawaiian Airlines, the year will forever stand out as a time when our ‘ohana proved what it means to be Hawaiʻi’s hometown carrier.

“What I want to remember from 2020 is how we distinguished ourselves as Hawai‘i’s airline despite, or even because of, the adversity we faced,” Hawaiian Airlines President and CEO Peter Ingram told employees in a company message. “Let 2021 be our year of lōkahi (unity) and poʻokela (excellence). To recover and thrive again, we must succeed as a team and strive for excellence. Opportunity is everywhere: from your role, to your team, to our guests, to the broader planning and strategy work. Let’s keep finding opportunities to make this a healthy and bright new year.”

While last year presented our business and the airline industry with unprecedented obstacles, it was also a time of philanthropy, community engagement and innovation. We implemented enhanced cleaning procedures at every travel stage, added a new health form to our check-in process and began offering our guests convenient pre-travel COVID-19 testing options. And while we’ve adjusted our services, we still fly with the same award-winning ho‘okipa (hospitality) we’re known for. 

On the ground, 1,510 members of our airline ‘ohana volunteered 6,506 hours to Hawai‘i-based organizations through our Team Kōkua employee giving program. They distributed boxes of donated foods and household goods, packed and delivered meals to kupuna (elderly), refreshed public schools and painted vibrant campus murals. In addition to sweat equity, Team Kōkua organized the equivalent of approximately $144,500 in employee-sponsored donations, ranging from travel and HawaiianMiles to cash contributions benefiting hundreds of nonprofits throughout the state. 

We are grateful for the generosity of our loyalty members who gave 10.3 million miles through the HawaiianMiles charity program, including 1.3 million miles raised during our special Giving Tuesday promotion. We matched 8.4 million miles, resulting in a total year-end donation of 18.7 million HawaiianMiles for 14 local charities.

These are all shining examples of our company’s values in action that we will continue throughout our recovery. Join us as we recap some of our airline’s proudest accomplishments in perpetuating our role as Hawai‘i’s hometown carrier.

Answering the Call to Help Our Guests

As the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly derailed vacations, weddings, honeymoons, family reunions and other Hawai‘i travel, our Hawaiian Airlines ‘ohana came together to support tens of thousands of guests with their reservations. In March, to manage a rapid influx of guest inquiries, our information technology, customer contacts, project management and facilities teams worked around the clock to set up a supplemental contact center at our Honolulu headquarters. 

Hundreds of employees from across the company – from airport operations and procurement to network planning and executive leadership – picked up the phone or reached out via our social channels to assist guests promptly. Volunteers clocked in thousands of hours each week, answering inquires, messaging guests via text and our mobile app, replying to emails and assisting with back-office processes.

Giving New Life to Our Soft Goods and Inflight Catering 

As we began suspending much of our flying, our product development and in-flight teams assessed inventory of unused cabin items, including blankets, pillowcases, slippers, mattress pads and amenity kits, to find them new homes and help vulnerable members of our community.

Since March, our airline has distributed over 10,300 fleece Main Cabin blankets, 177,000 Main Cabin pillowcases, 86,400 Main Cabin amenity kits, 600 Business Class pillowcases, 23,400 Business Class slippers, 2,199 Business Class mattress pads and 16,630 Business Class and Extra Comfort amenity kits to 12 local nonprofit organizations. A donation of 290 earbuds was also made to O‘ahu students who didn’t have dependable internet access for at-home learning and relied on schools' temporary, socially distanced learning labs.

Over $472,000 worth of catering goods, ranging from new hand towels and condiments to soft drinks and packaged foods, were donated to nonprofits in Hawai‘i and throughout our U.S. mainland network. 

Getting Medical Professionals Where They Need to Be

In April and May, we were honored to support Hawai‘i’s medical workers, including doctors, nurses, assistants and volunteers who boarded nearly 600 complimentary Neighbor Island flights while traveling throughout our islands to conduct testing and deliver care.

The All-Hands-On-Deck Cargo Flight for Masks

When local grassroots organization Every1ne Hawai‘i wanted to bring 1.6 million face masks to Hawai'i residents back in April, they turned to our airline to transport the shipment to Honolulu (HNL) from Shenzhen (SZX), China. Working with local organizations and vendors, the group acquired the protective gear directly from factories in China for distribution via a fleet of “mask mobiles” and a “mask marketplace” at City Mill locations. As the hometown carrier, we welcomed the humanitarian mission with open wings.  

On April 18, four pilots, two mechanics and two airport operations employees boarded our charter aircraft and departed HNL for Incheon (ICN), South Korea, where the crew rested before continuing to Shenzhen. The plane made its celebrated return to HNL on Tuesday, April 21, when the face masks were loaded into Every1ne Hawai‘i vans and distributed to communities statewide. 

Mālama Hawai‘i’s Public Schools

When the Hawai‘i State Department of Education (HIDOE) announced the August reopening of public schools with new COVID-19 protocols, we unveiled the Kōkua Our Schools program. The initiative, which kicked off in June in partnership with City Mill and POW! WOW! Hawai‘i, drew 385 Team Kōkua volunteers who put on their face masks and rolled up their sleeves to help six campuses across O‘ahu, Maui and Kaua‘i with various maintenance jobs ahead of the fall semester.

Thus far, these projects have amounted to over 2,400 hours of labor so educators could focus on providing a safe, COVID-conscious learning environment.

Kōkua for Returning College Students

This summer, our airline provided travel assistance to thousands of college students as they prepared to return to Hawai‘i and move within the islands for the fall semester. Under a travel assistance program, students registered for fall classes at Chaminade University, Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) and the University of Hawai‘i (UH) could take advantage of discounted fares and two complimentary checked bags. 

Dedicated Testing Partnerships 

After the September launch of the state of Hawai‘i’s Safe Travels program, we began to establish a dedicated network of laboratory partnerships aimed at making pre-travel COVID-19 testing seamless and accessible for our guests. 

Our growing testing network offers travelers taking a long-awaited Hawai‘i vacation or kama‘āina (residents) returning home convenient drive-through, walk-up and at-home COVID-19 test options. The result: our guests can bypass the state of Hawai‘i quarantine and safely enjoy the islands from the moment they arrive. To learn more about our testing partners and options, click here. 

Ready, Set, Holoholo

In October, we launched the Holoholo Challenge, a virtual fitness experience that encouraged the public to holoholo (to go out) during a time of isolation and disconnection. Over 12,000 participants chose between two courses, the 50-mile Mauka-to-Makai (mountainside-to-oceanside) or 130-mile O‘ahu perimeter, to holoholo in their own time and state while practicing safe social distancing.

Collectively, participants, including 20 Special Olympics Hawai‘i athletes and coaches sponsored by Hawaiian Airlines, clocked in approximately 852,700 miles (equivalent to trekking around Oʻahu more than 6,500 times) and raised over $68,000 for Special Olympics Hawai‘i.

Travel Pono

As Hawai‘i’s hometown carrier, we recognize the responsibility we have to steward our guests as they travel to, from, and between the Hawaiian Islands. We launched our Travel Pono campaign, a community-integrated effort to remind travelers to travel pono during this new era of exploration. 

What does travel pono mean? Debbie Nakanelua-Richards, director of community and cultural relations at Hawaiian Airlines, explains, “Pono, like ‘aloha’, embodies many important meanings. When we specifically say travel pono, we are asking others to travel responsibly and thoughtfully. We are ready to welcome our guests back, but we first ask for their kōkua [help] in taking the necessary steps that protect these islands and preserve its culture, natural resources and communities.”

Are you planning your visit to Hawai‘i soon? Click here to learn how you can travel pono while vacationing, visiting family or returning home.

Corporate Kuleana

To cap off 2020, we published our inaugural Corporate Kuleana Report outlining progress advancing a host of environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. To read the full report, click here.

We wouldn’t be here without the support of our employees, partners and guests, and for that, we offer our sincerest mahalo.

Hauʻoli Makahiki Hou (Happy New Year),

from our ʻohana to yours.

Ho‘okipa (hospitality) takes many shapes at Hawaiian Airlines, and in 2020, it is reflected in our work to ensure guests have reliable access to pre-travel COVID-19 tests to meet the state of Hawai‘i’s Safe Travels requirements. We have invested in numerous testing partnerships to make it easy for our guests to obtain negative test results within 72 hours of their trip so they may safely enjoy long-awaited Hawai‘i vacations or return home. These collaborations have played a critical role in keeping travel to our islands safe, protecting the health of communities and bolstering the local economy.

In late October, we became the first U.S. airline to begin establishing a network of drive-through COVID-19 testing locations near key gateway airports in partnership with Long Beach-based Worksite Labs. Our guests departing to Hawai‘i from San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and starting today, San Jose International Airport, have exclusive access to shallow nasal swab PCR tests – the gold standard in COVID-19 screening – at conveniently located Worksite Labs sites, with results within 36 hours for $90.

“We chose to do our pre-travel testing with Worksite Labs, and they made us feel the Aloha spirit from the moment we arrived at the drive-through testing site,” said Lori Timmons, who recently traveled from San Francisco to visit family on O‘ahu, and reached out to us to share her positive experience. “It was conveniently located and well-staffed with friendly and patient people who helped our family of six through the windows of our car. The testing itself was easy and comfortable, just as convenient as making the reservation online — including the ability to edit/adjust our appointment. We received our negative results ahead of our departure and obtained the QR code from Hawai‘i’s Safe Travels Program to breeze through airport screening once we arrived in Hawai‘i as well as at the hotels. Mahalo Worksite Labs for providing this essential service to keep our family and the people of Hawai‘i safe!”

We require all guests to wear a face covering and we encourage them to travel responsibly.

Our airline's Worksite Labs venture was established to offer travelers quick, affordable and reliable test results from dedicated laboratories that are free from accessibility constraints the pandemic has placed on healthcare testing providers.

We talked story with Worksite Labs CEO Gary Frazier and Hawaiian Airlines Senior Vice President of Marketing Avi Mannis to learn more about our growing partnership, its impact on travel and what the future holds. To learn more about our pre-travel testing options and partners, please visit www.hawaiianairlines.com/COVIDTesting. 

Can you explain your background and how Worksite Labs was started?

I spent the last two decades developing strategies for healthcare providers and later moved into an independent consultant role for various hospitals and health systems. When COVID-19 started to spread in the United States, I was doing consulting when I was approached by a company that was making PCR antigen tests and needed help getting FDA approval. We spent an entire month and a half pulling together validation studies and partners only for it to later fall apart. But because of that experience, I had been put through an immersion of COVID-19 laboratory testing services. 

When that project didn’t work, a friend asked me what I had learned. I believed that the lab infrastructure in the country would not be able to keep up with testing demand because of the pandemic and that turnaround times for results could get pushed out several days (weeks, even). That same friend asked what I would do to solve that problem, and I said I would bring the lab to them [the client]. I would put a lab on-site and dedicate it to that client so that they never have to worry about competing for a spot in the queue. That was the conception of Worksite Labs, and by May, I had the beginnings of the business.

What does it take to get a mobile lab up and running at these sites? 

A lab worker processing a specimen sample at our Los Angeles Worksite Labs location.

Getting one of our professional-grade labs in operation takes about two weeks, and requires three parallel processes to occur:

1. Our clients have to have a facility (or leased land, in Hawaiian Airlines' case) for the container to live. Each lab is in an 8-by-20-foot shipping container that has gone through an extensive custom refurbishment for clinical and medical use.
2. Once the lab is on the site, we need to acquire the equipment that is required for processing laboratory science and COVID-19 tests.
3. We have to hire qualified lab staff to work in the lab, primarily scientists and lab technicians or assistants. For Hawaiian’s drive-through locations, we also need licensed vocational nurses and medical assistants outside of the labs doing collections, instructing travelers on how to provide their sample and informing them of safety protocols.

A Worksite Labs worker processing a COVID-19 test. Our dedicated labs are fully equipped to collect and process samples on-site and ensure timely results.

Because we can open up testing capability for Hawaiian in this turn-key way, it doesn’t have to invest in equipment, hire medical staff, and get into a business that isn’t its expertise. Our service is all-inclusive, flexible and responsive so that Hawaiian Airlines can focus on its business while we take care of the rest.

What is the testing capacity of each lab? How does Worksite Labs guarantee its turnaround time?

It varies because we can scale our capacity up or down. At a minimum, during an eight-hour shift, we can process up to 2,000 samples. Then it takes eight hours for the staff to process the results inside the lab. The spice in our dish is that we can test samples on-site—we’re not shipping them out. Our Hawaiian Airlines labs are dedicated to its customers and are not affected if/when there’s a surge of medically required testing and the large multi-purpose labs are at max testing capacity.

How are the Hawaiian Airlines-dedicated labs performing? 

A collection bag that is given to travelers who can provide their sample from the comfort and safety of their cars.

In the last month, we did 5,091 tests and we’re in the 99 percentile for on-time testing results. In short, I’d say these labs are running very well.

Looking ahead, what does the future look like for Worksite Labs and its partnership with Hawaiian Airlines?

Testing is likely not going to go away for a while. Our mobile labs are just like any other lab, so there’s nothing that will keep us from deciding that our services could be used to bolster capacity for hospital and medical groups.

In terms of our partnership with Hawaiian Airlines, as long as the state requires negative COVID-19 test results, we remain committed to simplifying the experience for its customers. There are other places that Hawaiian flies from where Worksite Labs could be deployed and used as a dedicated lab for its customers.

How and why the partnership was created, with Avi Mannis, Hawaiian Airlines senior vice president of marketing

Why did our airline decide to partner with a COVID-19 test provider, and what made Worksite Labs a good fit?

We realized early on in the pandemic that testing was going to be important to re-opening our state to travel, and that we should control our destiny rather than relying on large third-party labs. Worksite Labs offered us a solution tailor-fit to our needs: lab units that could be dedicated exclusively to our guests, with the gold standard in testing technology, located where it was most convenient for our travelers. And their entrepreneurial spirit lends itself to a challenge where we are creating an entirely new travel product from the ground up.

How has the partnership helped streamline the travel experience to Hawai‘i during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Many Hawaiian Airlines-designated testing labs, such as our Los Angeles site shown here, are adorned with Hawai‘i-inspired murals made by local artists, and all labs are equipped with simple instructional signage to streamline the testing experience.

Making pre-travel testing seamless, easy and affordable helps our guests, but it also keeps our community safe. Keeping the state safe isn’t about creating additional hurdles for travelers; it’s about making it easy to do the right thing. We view testing as one more problem we can help solve for our guests so that they can focus on enjoying the journey. And it’s working – at a time when it is getting harder to find affordable, timely tests for Hawai‘i travel, our dedicated lab network is still able to deliver for our guests.

As Hawai‘i continues to adapt to these unique and evolving times, how important will testing partnerships like these be moving forward?

First, it’s important to recognize that what we have done as a state is working. While no system is perfect, pre-travel testing has allowed a modest resumption of tourism – our state’s biggest industry – while keeping cases well within the capacity of our health care system. Even as we look forward to the relief provided by vaccines, it’s clear that testing will remain important to re-opening travel well into 2021. The terrible human and economic toll of COVID-19 has shown us that we need infrastructure that is more resilient to pandemics, and we are developing some of those capabilities not just for now, but for the future security of our community.

What are our airline’s plans for testing sites? Are more expected to open and if so, where and how many? 

Our Worksite Labs sites include signage to educate travelers about the state of Hawaii's Safe Travels program requirements.

We are continuing to open new dedicated testing sites in partnership with Worksite Labs in many of our major U.S. markets. So far, each testing site has exceeded our expectations in terms of demand, and we expect to continue expanding to make sure that access to testing is never an impediment for someone who wants to fly on Hawaiian.