Hawaiian Airlines has this morning revealed its new cabin design and business class seats in Dreamliners entering service early next year.
The airline - which flies to New Zealand three return flights a week from Honolulu - is also doubling the number of business class seats on its new aircraft, in response to surging demand by high-end leisure passengers.
The new Leihōkū Suites in business class have privacy doors and are in a 1-2-1 configuration, unlike the 2-2-2 layout in Airbus A330 planes. All those in business class will now have direct aisle access.
The airline has used Seattle design company Teague for cabin design elements that evoke Hawaii’s rich natural world through bold textures, island-inspired sunrise and sunset lighting and ocean and wind patterns. Teague has worked on Dreamliner interior design for nearly 20 years but says it found plenty of new elements and features for Hawaiian.
“The combination of our evocative cabin design and unparalleled service will make our 787 the most relaxing and enjoyable choice for travel to and from Hawaii,” said Avi Mannis, chief marketing and communications officer at Hawaiian Airlines who has test driven the new seats - by sleeping in one in his office.
With the new configuration with doors, the suites can offer privacy or a shared experience, with combined double seats slightly angled away from each other, allowing couples to fall asleep while looking up at a starlit ceiling evoking the constellations that guided Polynesian voyagers at night.
In developing its Leihōkū Suite, Hawaiian became the first airline to partner with Adient Aerospace – a joint venture between the Boeing Company and Adient, a leader in automotive seats.
There will be 34 suites in total, compared with A330s with 18 business class seats, although one is reserved for pilots.
The airline is getting 12 Dreamliners and while it hasn’t announced where it will use them, Mannis said they will be on dense, high-population routes where there is strong demand for premium cabins. The airline flies to 15 mainland United States destinations and the Japanese market, slowly recovering after the pandemic, is another possible destination for the new 300-seat Dreamliners.
The smaller A330s - refitted in the past eight years - are seen as ideal for the New Zealand market.
“The A330 is still the ideal aircraft for the New Zealand market really, in terms of size and configuration, and still has plenty of life in it,” said Mannis.
Demand is soaring among leisure travellers for premium cabins - where yields can far exceed those further back in the plane. He said Hawaiian saw this before the pandemic and the trend had got stronger.
“Even before the pandemic, we were seeing demand for premium products specifically to Hawaii growing at a rate greater than the main cabin. That’s been absolutely the trend post-pandemic as there’s been a real surge in interest,” Mannis said.
“We think it’s even better now in the current environment with the level of demand. The product is absolutely the right one for premium travellers who are going on a leisure trip to Hawaii.”
The airline is replacing iPads in business with traditional inflight entertainment (IFE), featuring 45cm screens.
“With the current A330 seat, the goal was to create a really open space and getting rid of the monitor allowed us to do that. I think there are downsides in terms of the amount of time to get those iPads distributed to guests which is sometimes frustrating for them.”
More privacy in the new cabins is achieved with sliding screens.
Trystan Parry, vice-president of sales and product support at Adient Aerospace, said Hawaiian was the launch customer for its Ascent seat model which is in a reverse herringbone layout with each seat facing out towards windows, larger on Dreamliners than other aircraft.
The “cabana suites” in the middle of the cabin have a drop-down partition.
The business class seats are similar to those the company designed for Qatar Airways’ 787s.
Parry said the seats and the mechanical parts (to get them to lie flat) are made in Germany and the furniture around them is made in California. Adient, a joint venture partnership with Boeing, then installs them in Seattle.
In Hawaiianʻs 787 main cabin (economy), consisting of 266 Collins Aerospace’s Aspire seats with ergonomically contoured back and armrests, a lightweight, modern design that maximises seat space offers more shoulder and hip room, and features a 30.5cmseatback monitor with USB-A and USB-C charging ports.
There are 79 extra comfort seats in the main cabin which offer more legroom and access to AC outlets.
Loreto Julian, interior design and surface textile design manager at Teague in Seattle, is from Hawaii and said he got to use his own background for cultural references.
“There are a few things in there that are very personal to me because it was my experience that we folded into the interior.”
He said the aim was to create a unique space and a taste of Hawaii, with laminates and fabrics reflecting the forms of native plants throughout the cabin.
Each design element of Hawaiian’s 787 celebrates Polynesian navigators who sailed the Pacific by observing the stars, sun, winds, waves and wildlife. Wind and waves are expressed through curved forms throughout the entryway and cabin. Accents of deep aqua are used in carpets and privacy dividers in the Leihōkū Suites.
Mannis said people travelling at this end of the pandemic were looking for more experiential travel.
“They’re looking to get to consume culture and learn new things.”
The airline was also acutely aware of what would create buzz.
“One of the things that I do a lot as, as we try and design product, is spend a lot of time looking at the pictures that people take and post on social media of their travel experience,” he said.
“I think it’s really telling that so much of the travel experience today is not just about what you experience, but about how you tell the story of your trip for your friends and family.”
He believes unique details will help sell the new interiors.
“Whether it’s the entryway or some of the little features like the Hawaiian shirts on lavatory occupied sign - those are all details that are designed for people to share socially and that have a real marketing benefit for us as well.”
Hawaiian is scheduled to receive the first of its General Electric GEnx engine-powered Dreamliners in November, with remaining deliveries planned through to 2027.
The airline sold its last slots at Heathrow in 2020.