STAR-ADVERTISER / 2019
Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants Summer Manuma, center, and Jeff Fuke, right, wear then-current uniforms during a protest over contract terms at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on June 26, 2019.
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Hawaiian Airlines customers were understandably concerned that the merger with Alaska Air would lessen Hawaiian’s cultural uniqueness and charming character. That concern seems justified.
Alaska recently prevented some Hawaiian Air flight attendants from wearing their traditional uniforms and restricted their use of flowers in their hair or lei on international flights from Seattle. If Alaska Air management feared passengers would be unsettled by seeing Hawaiian garb, they should have recognized these concerns were outweighed by the public relations damage the company has inflicted on itself.
Alaska is also stopping service of free meals by Hawaiian, a long-standing tradition that customers appreciated even as other airlines ended the benefit.
Though Alaska has pledged to retain Hawaiian’s “distinctive branding,” this now looks like cynical lip service. As loyal Hawaiian Air customers, we urge Alaska Air to stop tampering with the distinctive features that make Hawaiian Hawaiian.
Donna Ching and Richard Leman
Honokaa, Hawaii island
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