DESTINATION HNL
SCHEDULE DE-PEAKING
Q1 KŪPONO AWARDS
THE STEEL GUITAR
APRIL 2017
Stepping into our future
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Destination / Honolulu
HawaiianAirlines.com is not just some booking engine for the Internet. Oh no, it’s much more. With the exciting relaunch of our company’s web portal in 2015, would-be vacationers can also learn more about the destinations of their dreams through the Island Guide, a wealth of online content about places to see and things to do while isle-hopping in Hawai‘i. “Our stories are carefully curated with the help of our team of locally-based writers. Our goal is to keep the content interesting, current and relevant,” said Digital Content Editor Stacy Yuen. If you’re looking for fun and interesting things to check out on O‘ahu, here are some of the tips you’ll find in the Island Guide. What do you recommend for ocean lovers and history buffs? Moku o Lo‘e, also known as Coconut Island, is full of history. Christian Holmes, the owner of Hawaiian Tuna Packers, now Coral Tuna, originally purchased the islet to use as a packing factory and, eventually, for his own private estate. After his death in 1947, Edwin Pauley repurchased the islet. It became a popular getaway for dignitaries, including Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Red Skelton, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan. Today, the storied islet is part of the University of Hawai‘i’s Institute for Marine Biology and offers public walking tours where you can see sharks and other marine life (there’s also a touch pool) and learn the ways in which researchers are working to preserve coral reefs and marine life. Where can I experience the night life of metro-Honolulu? Sky Waikīkī is great for the early evening crowd and night owls. If you visit just as the sun is setting, you’ll be treated to nearly 360-degree scenic views of Diamond Head, Waikīkī’s beaches and the iconic coral Royal Hawaiian Hotel from the open-air lanai. The club is located 19 stories up, just below the Top of Waikīkī, the city’s rooftop rotating restaurant. Grab a seat on one of the couches and sip on handmade cocktails, such as the Yokohama Old Fashioned made with Kikori Japanese whiskey, or the Pop’s Midnight Mule. Pūpū includes appetizer mainstays such as fries and chicken wings to the inventive Spicy Tuna Sashimi Pizza. Go later—10 p.m. and on—and the indoor club has all the action, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. In the evening, seating on the lanai is reserved for bottle service, but you can still walk out and admire the view.
Where can you get a good cup of Joe on O‘ahu? When you place an order at Glazer’s Coffee, you’re getting more than just a regular cup of coffee. A latte at the King Street coffee shop is a work of art. The shop’s baristas are known for perfecting the steamed milk drinks with cute, often intricate designs. But it doesn’t just look good. Glazer’s features small-batch roasts made with only high quality Arabica coffee beans, which are also fair trade and organic. The homey Seattle-style shop is a regular hangout for nearby University of Hawai‘i students, professionals, and anyone looking for a quality espresso. Are there any off-the-beaten-path tours for nostalgic fans of Hawaiian music? The Kamaka name is synonymous with high-quality ukuleles favored by top local entertainers including Jake Shimabukuro, Raiatea Helm and Brittni Paiva. Sam Kamaka invented the “pineapple ukulele,” which, shaped like the golden fruit, produces a mellow, resonant sound that’s different from the ubiquitous figure-eight shaped instrument. Since its beginnings in the 1900s, Kamaka Hawai‘i has been a family-owned-and-operated business, run by Sam’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Fred Kamaka, Sr., Sam’s younger son, now in his 90s, leads a free, hour-long factory tour Tuesday through Friday mornings. Participants see every phase of the ukulele-making process, from raw lumber to gleaming, finished instruments; each one receives a final tuning by a member of the Kamaka family. As Fred points out, success has come by following his father’s advice: “If you make instruments and use the family name, don’t make junk.” ■
Smoothing the Peaks Take a walk through our lobby at HNL around lunchtime and you’ll see just how packed it can get in Terminal 2 during the rush hour. At its busiest period, thousands of passengers inundate our hub, beelining it to the baggage carousel, rushing to catch a connecting flight, or leaving the islands on business or vacation. This daily mad rush is the result of a phenomenon known in the airline industry as banking or peaking, in which several flights arrive and depart all in just a short window of time – and is common in airlines like ours that operate a “hub and spoke” model. “From a purely economic perspective, it’s essential, given our business model, to ensure that our North America and International guests can easily connect to their Neighbor Island destinations – we obviously couldn’t sustain direct flights only. And so, we’ve banked the majority of our wide-body flights during the middle of the day to make connections and hotel check-ins convenient for our guests,” said Brent Overbeek, Vice President of Revenue Management and Network Planning. “But, over the years, as we’ve been adding flights and growing our business, the airport hasn’t kept pace with us. While we continue to push for infrastructure changes in our lobby, we’re also looking at what we can do now to decompress Terminal 2 during peak hours.” One way to do this is to gradually spread out arrivals and departures throughout the day, a process known as schedule “de-peaking.” The obvious benefit to de-peaking is that it lessens the flood of passenger traffic from around 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Decreasing foot traffic also increases the average passenger-to-agent ratio, taking some of the pressure off of our Guest Service Agents and allowing them to deliver a deeper level of service. “As it is, the mid-day rush stretches us extremely thin,” said Jeff Helfrick, Vice President of Airport Operations. “We’re constantly
moving people and equipment between gates, which requires our folks to cover long distances from gate to gate in a short amount of time. In addition to this, the lobby configuration and current bag system simply aren’t designed to manage the throughput of people and luggage at rush hour, a fact which only gets worse in the busy summer months.” “Schedule changes will help with that. As an example, changing just two of our flights frees up two GSE tow tractors and eight Ramp Agents to cover other operational needs, and reduces passenger traffic inside the terminal by about 400 people during our busiest time of the day,” Jeff said.
But a schedule change is, well…it’s change. And change can be difficult. “We want to maintain a commercially strong schedule and continue to provide the connectivity for guests that is essential to our business model,” Brent said. “We also understand that there are big implications when we change the time of any flight, whether it impacts our guests, employees or their families. This summer you’ll see relatively small changes to the peak schedule, which will help us to do more planning for future changes.” “As we consider any changes, we are going to let employees know what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and how it’ll affect folks,” said Jeff. “That’ll be among our highest priorities.” ■
SIM A321neo
Congratulations to Our First Quarter Kūpono Awardees! Relieving guests’ anxiety as they’re waiting for a delayed flight can be challenging, but JEREMIAH KAHOLOA‘A, a Contract Serviceman, accomplished that with ease at one of our OGG boarding gates recently. He picked up his ukulele and sang, filling the room with smiles and applause. His nominator, Lead Ramp Agent Jake Malalsemal, describes that impromptu performance as “pure aloha”— and typical of Jeremiah on the job. “He’s always willing to help out all his coworkers,” Jake said. “When we have doubts, he is there to assure us; when we have arguments or disagreements, he is there to guide us and show us ways to resolve our differences; when we are off track, he is there to remind us of the importance of our duties and our roles as team players.” OGG Operations Manager Lenora Hay-Muagututia praises Jeremiah’s diligence, positive attitude and professionalism. “He leads by example, is a joy to be around, works and lives aloha,” Lenora said. “He is very well-respected and key to the success of our OGG ‘Ohana.” ■
SIM Delivery Heralds Coming Fleet
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T’S BIG. It’s on the cutting-edge of advanced flight training technology. And it’s the latest step in our continuing preparations for the arrival of our newest fleet of aircraft.
In March, Hawaiian Airlines welcomed our first A321neo flight simulator, the second in our lineup of full flight training apparatus. The new simulator will allow us to continue our Advanced Qualification Program for pilots training to fly the new aircraft that we expect to begin arriving by the end of this year. As is our custom for all new aircraft and flight equipment, the simulator was blessed in traditional Hawaiian fashion before a small crowd of employees and stakeholders. “We are excited to invest in our in-house training facility by providing our pilots convenient access to another state-of-the-art simulator, which will also lead to significant cost savings,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Snook. ■
The “stage” was the aisle of HA16 flying from Honolulu to San Diego. There were no decorations, amplification or special lighting. But, when Flight Attendant LEHUA BELTRAMETEVAGA, the reigning Mrs. Hawai‘i America, honored 97-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor Ray Richmond by giving him a lei and dancing “Papalina Lahilahi” beside his seat, it was a beautiful, touching and memorable performance. Even better, the renowned trio Makaha Sons, who happened to be on the flight, accompanied her. Mr. Richmond was flying home from the ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, which propelled the United States into World War II. A330 First Officer Russell Flynn, Lehua’s nominator, notes her special in-flight dance was captured on video and has gone viral on social media; it has been viewed over a quarter of a million times on Facebook alone. “Anyone who watches the video can immediately see that this was a truly genuine and heartfelt gesture,” Russell said. “The comments received from around the globe clearly show how much goodwill has been generated by Lehua’s actions. Her hula is the absolute definition of ‘aloha spirit.’” ■
Dealing With Parking Head On A few years back, the world’s first million-dollar parking space went up for sale in New York City, an indication of just how crazy the market can be for parking in space-constrained cities. And while Honolulu may not be in the throes of parking Armageddon like some of the larger metropolitan areas on the Mainland, finding a parking stall in Honolulu is still a real challenge.
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HE REASON IS SIMPLE. Land is a limited (and therefore very pricey) commodity on O‘ahu. The shortage of space not only drives up the cost of housing, but also parking costs in hightraffic areas like Downtown Honolulu (where monthly fees can exceed $300), and yes, the Airport district. Any HNL employee can tell you, parking has been a problem around here for quite some time. Combine that with our rapid growth, and the lack of options to expand to large, contiguous parcels of land near the airport, and you have the makings of a perfect storm. “There are no easy answers, because the DOT-A owns what limited parking space there is at HNL,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Snook. “But our employees deserve nothing less than our very best effort in determining what things we do have control over to help alleviate their parking issues.” With the support and partnership of the company’s Corporate Real Estate team, Jon chartered a multi-disciplinary operations leadership group to look at all of the issues surrounding employee parking at HNL. First order of business was to develop a comprehensive database of every HNL employee and where they park. This was a huge, but critical, step in establishing a baseline for decision-making.
The results of the survey have allowed us to do the following: ■ We are working to reduce the time it takes for employees to get to
work on time by providing an opportunity for 150 employees (based on seniority) who work out of the HNL terminal to move from the Elliott Street Lot to Lot U. ■ We continue to review the shuttle service currently being provided
between our parking lots and the airport, including installation of cameras in vehicles and the addition of a second stop at Lot U for maximum security and convenience. ■ By the end of this summer, we plan to take over control of the
Elliott Street Lot in order to take the burden off of our employees by centralizing the administration process, with other lots to follow. “We have a lot more information now and it’s helping us to make informed changes and improvements,” said Director of Facilities Tim Somerset. “We’re doing our best to make improvements in the short term, and keeping an eye out for our future needs as the company grows.” ■
Kama‘āina Insights / History of the Steel Guitar
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S THE STORY GOES, in 1885, 11-year-old Joseph Kekuku was walking along a railroad track in Honolulu with his guitar in hand when he saw a bolt on the ground. As he picked it up, it touched one of the guitar’s strings, producing a beautiful vibrato sound. Intrigued, Kekuku began playing his guitar by laying it flat on his lap and changing the pitch of its strings by sliding the bolt across them with his left hand. He also experimented with the back of a pocketknife, a tumbler, a metal hair comb and the dulled edge of a razor blade before determining a slim, four-inch steel bar that he designed in his machine shop class at Kamehameha School for Boys produced the best sound and was the most durable and easiest to control. Thus, the steel guitar, a new Hawaiian instrument was born. In 1904, at the age of 30, Kekuku left Hawai‘i for the Mainland, never to return. But he brought the Islands and the steel guitar to the world, first performing in vaudeville theaters across America with his group, Kekuku’s Hawaiian Quintet. In 1919, he joined the cast of a show called “The Bird of Paradise,” which toured Europe for eight years. Kekuku returned to the United States in 1927, settling in Chicago where he taught steel guitar lessons at the Reids School of Popular Music. In a pamphlet distributed by the school, Kekuku
UPCOMING EVENTS APRIL 26-27 Hawaiian Steel Guitar Camp Kā‘anapali Beach Hotel, Kā‘anapali Beach Resort, Maui APRIL 28-30 Maui Steel Guitar Festival Kā‘anapali Beach Hotel APRIL 30 Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center Kahului, Maui JUNE 11 Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival Windward Mall, Kāne‘ohe, O‘ahu JULY 10-15 Waikīkī Steel Guitar Festival Royal Hawaiian Center, Waikīkī, O‘ahu NOVEMBER 10-12 Kona Steel Guitar Festival Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows, Kohala Coast, Hawai‘i island
Photos Courtesy_Ke Kula Mele
wrote, “It took me seven years to master the [steel] guitar as I had no teacher to show me and no books to refer to for information.” A few years later, he moved to Dover, New Jersey, where he lived and continued to teach until his death on January 16, 1932. By then, America was in love with Hawaiian music and the steel guitar. Manufacturers were offering instruments with legs, foot pedals, knee levers and one to four necks, each with eight strings tuned differently. Music publishers were selling steel guitar sheet music and instruction books. When the electric steel guitar appeared in the 1930s, musicians in a wide range of genres from pop, folk and rock to jazz, blues and country/western proved its versatility. Also contributing to the steel guitar’s popularity was the weekly radio show “Hawai‘i Calls,” which was broadcast from the seaside Moana hotel from 1935 to 1975. Featuring top Island singers, dancers and bands sharing the magical voice of the steel guitar, the show was aired by more than 750 stations around the globe at the peak of its popularity from the 1950s through the 1960s. Today, Ke Kula Mele Hawai‘i in Kailua on O‘ahu offers private and group steel guitar lessons and helps sponsor steel guitar festivals throughout the year. Call 808-375-9379, email info@kekulamele.com or for more information go to www.kekulamele.com. ■
Tragedy Brings the ‘Ohana Together History bears witness to an undeniable truth about the human condition: hard times and tragedy bring us together. And at Hawaiian Airlines, we’re certainly no strangers to this phenomenon. When the chips are down, it’s in our code and culture to rally, to support each other, to lift each other up, and to comfort our colleagues when they need it most.
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HEN LAS GENERAL MANAGER Susan Miyasato tragically passed away on March 9 after a courageous sevenmonth battle with cancer, the employees of Hawaiian Airlines came together to bid her farewell – and make absolutely sure that her final journey back home to Hawai‘i went flawlessly. Born and raised on O‘ahu, Susan joined Hawaiian Airlines in April 1995 to help re-open LAS as Assistant Station Manager. She made a positive difference from the get-go and soon established herself as a tireless, productive, cheerful and well-respected team member. She played a crucial role in so much of our company’s growth and success over the years, helping to open new stations at OAK and JFK, supporting SAN Station during a tough leadership transition, and being a part of important operational projects aimed at improving customer care. Over her 22-year career, Susan had made such an indelible impact throughout the company that in the days following her passing, LAS and HNL employees quickly stepped in to show their support and love by taking care of every detail of Susan’s final flight home. The team also reached out to her husband, David, bringing food, and delivering the comfort and compassion he needs now more than ever.
MANAGING EDITOR
Kevin Imanaka Corporate Communications CONTRIBUTORS
Melody Pieper Human Resources Damian Balinowski Corporate Communications Jeff Helfrick Airport Operations Wes Nakama Airport Operations
Heartfelt condolences poured in from nearly every station – from Pilots, Ramp and Cargo Agents, administrative employees and executives alike. Susan always left a positive impression on everyone she met, not only within the company and station, but throughout the entire airport as well. In a gesture that is reserved only for special occasions, officials from McCarran International Airport delivered a water cannon salute for Susan’s flight back home to Hawai‘i as her LAS colleagues bid her one final mahalo. “The unbelievable support Susan’s Hawaiian Airlines ‘ohana has shown to her and her family is a testament to how much she’s meant to so many of us,” said Vice President of Airport Operations Jeff Helfrick. ”And it demonstrates how remarkably strong the sense of ‘ohana is here at Hawaiian.” ■
COVER
Brent Overbeek Revenue Management & Network Planning
Welcoming our A321neo full flight simulator
Rick Tong Facilities Management
PHOTO_Nicky Texeira, Social Media Specialist
Stacey Yuen Online Experience
is published monthly by the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs department. Between issues, get the latest news and information via HApeople. Contributions, questions, comments and suggestions can be sent to corpcomm2@hawaiianair.com. Contribution deadline for the June issue: May 12, 2017.