Deal gives some Hawaiian Air pilots 40% raise

Hawaiian Airlines and its pilots union have reached a tentative agreement on a six-year contract that will increase the wages for some of its pilots by as much as 40 percent the first year and 2 to 3 percent in subsequent years.

The most experienced captains flying Hawaiian’s largest jets would see their pay jump to $313,000 once the contract is signed, up from $223,000.

“It definitely will be a significant gain year over year for the pilots,” said union leader Hoon Lee with the Air Line Pilots Association.

The union is reviewing the agreement before it sends it to its 674 members for ratification.

The Air Line Pilots Association, which notified members of the agreement Monday, had been threatening to strike if no deal was reached. A strike could have had devastating ramifications for the state’s economy, particularly since Hawaiian services about 90 percent of the interisland travel market.

“Both parties are currently confirming specific changes and completing remaining contract language,” the ALPA said in a statement. “Once that is completed, pilot leaders will review and vote on whether to send the tentative agreement to Hawaiian Airlines pilots for possible member ratification.”

Lee, the Master Executive Council chairman for Hawaiian’s ALPA unit, said the agreement is worth an average $80 million to $100 million per year over the life of the contract.

The agreement, which came after nearly two years of negotiations and about a year in federal mediation, had resulted in informational pickets at the airport as well as the pilots opening a strike center in Honolulu.

Hawaiian declined to elaborate on the agreement.

“It is not appropriate for us to comment at this point,” Hawaiian spokeswoman Ann Botticelli said in an email.

The two sides, which spent close to 40 days in mediation, last held supervised talks in mid-November. Hawaiian and the pilots reached the agreement outside of mediation. The union leaders voted 3-1 to approve the agreement, with Lee dissenting.

“Obviously, getting an agreement in principle is a huge step for both sides resolving it without the mediation board,” Lee said. “It’s beneficial for the pilots and the company.”

Other provisions of the agreement include about $40 million in retroactive pay that the pilots will receive dating back to when their contract ended in September 2015.

Lee said he voted against the agreement because of his own valuation in which he determined that the agreement did not reach a market-rate contract with full retroactive value.

“But this decision will be up to the membership,” he said. “The last thing I wanted to do was stand in the way of the democratic process of membership voting for a comprehensive agreement, and I wanted to allow them to evaluate if it’s worth supporting or rejecting.”

The hourly wages and increases vary depending on the type of aircraft.

The largest increase of 40 percent is for an Airbus A330 captain with 12 years’ experience. The rate will increase from the current level of $207 an hour to $290 on the date that ALPA signs a new contract, and then rise to $300 an hour in 2017 before reaching $337 an hour in 2022.

Veteran A330 captains today make in the range of about $186,000 to $223,000 a year based on working 75 to 90 hours a month. Under the new agreement, A330 captains would see their annual pay increase to a range of about $261,000 to $313,000 upon the contract being signed with that range to escalate to a range of about $303,000 to $364,000 by 2022.

Lee said the percentage increase that the union negotiated for the first year was “significant” but noted that deals that other large airlines recently reached with their pilots started from a higher base pay level.

“They were already almost 45 percent higher than us, but the percentage change wasn’t as much as we received,” he said. “Their pay rates were about $245 to $260 an hour, and they went up to about $300 to $320 an hour for similar aircraft.”

Hawaiian has three aircraft in its fleet with a fourth type of plane, a long-haul, narrow-body A321neo, due to begin entering the fleet in December. The other two types of aircraft in Hawaiian’s fleet are the Boeing 767, which are used for long-haul flights and are being phased out, and Boeing 717s that are used only for interisland flying.

Among the three types of aircraft, Boeing 767 captains with 12 years’ experience would see their hourly rate of $207 increase 16 percent to $240 an hour upon signing the contract and reach $281 an hour in 2022.

An A321neo captain’s rate with 12 years’ experience would start at $235 on the date of signing and reach $275 in the last year of the agreement. Since there are no A321neos in the fleet now, there is no current hourly rate.

And Boeing 717 captains with 12 years’ experience would see their hourly rates increase 21 percent to $210 from the current rate of $174. By 2022 that rate would be $247.

First officers, who make $36 an hour in their first year, would receive hourly rate percentage increase after their first year that would be 46 to 69.8 percent of what captains make with similar experience.