By Allison Schaefers, The Honolulu Star-AdvertiserAlaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines plan to combine operations.
Hawaiian spokesperson Alex Da Silva said a vast majority of Hawaii’s 1,400 noncontract employees “received offers to stay with the combined organization for at least 6 months, and the intent is to retain most people for a year or longer, many with long-term offers. We are also continuing to encourage everyone to apply for open roles within our combined organization.”
“This is such a small number of layoffs, I expect that there could be more but maybe not significantly more,"he said. “There’s not huge numbers of overlapping routes, so I think there will be a smaller number of layoffs than in most mergers, but obviously in the front office there are redundancies.” Da Silva said all 73 noncontract employees who are separating from Hawaiian will retain their jobs through Dec. 17, which is 90 days from when the merger closed. He said they will be paid through the end of the year and receive both a retention and a severance package, and individualized job placement services.
Other leadership departures include Aaron Alter, Hawaiian’s chief legal officer ; Avi Mannis, Hawaiian’s chief marketing officer ; Brent Overbeek, Hawaiian’s chief revenue officer ; Jon Snook, Hawaii’s chief operating officer ; Robin Sparling, Hawaiian’s InFlight Services ; and Rob Sorenson, Hawaiian’s marketing and e-commerce.
These labor decisions are coming at a time when labor costs are a major focus for many airlines, especially Hawaiian.