Source: Hawaiian Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines added an additional flight from Kahului to Honolulu to support the ongoing evacuation of displaced visitors and residents. The airlines has also flown its full regular schedule of some 25 roundtrips between Honolulu and Maui this past weekend.

Hawaiian transported more than 6,600 people out of Maui  and expects to carry more than 17,000 visitors and residents out of the island in the 72 hours since the fires broke out. The 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.

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.”

A message from our CEO:

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.

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.

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.

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.