KALAPAKI BEACH – Combined losses for Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines are $270,000 a day. For small carriers, that’s a lot of money, though nothing like the millions of dollars a day United Airlines claims it has been losing since
KALAPAKI BEACH – Combined losses for Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines are $270,000 a day.
For small carriers, that’s a lot of money, though nothing like the millions of dollars a day United Airlines claims it has been losing since the terrorist attacks of September 11.
And while Greg Brenneman would never speculate whether or not either of the interisland carriers could continue to sustain those kinds of losses and continue flying, he is confident in his abilities to turn two losers into one winner if his proposed merger of Aloha and Hawaiian meets governmental regulatory approvals.
He fully expects that to happen by mid-2002 at the latest. Brenneman, chairman and chief executive officer of TurnWorks, Inc., a company specializing in corporate turnarounds, announced in December that he would merge Aloha and Hawaiian, and be the chairman and chief executive officer of the combined company.
And while much has been made about concern about and opposition to the merger from such heights as the Washington offices of U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink (Democrat – rural O’ahu and the Neighbor Islands), Brenneman said Friday he doesn’t think the opposition to the proposed merger has been that bad.
He has met with most of the 7,000 employees of both airlines, maintains open lines of communication with them through regular recorded messages, responses to individual telephone calls, question-and-answer publications, and other means.
Speeches like the one he delivered to members and guests of the Kaua’i Rotary Club at the Kaua’i Lagoons Terrace Restaurant Friday at noon let the public know of plans to keep airfares low for at least five years.
“Five years is a long time in the airline business,” he said.
And while he understands fully the concerns over the changes he is proposing both for the traveling public and employees of the two companies, he remains steadfast in his belief that not only can the combined carriers survive, but the combined entity can flourish.
Most of the opposition, he feels, is simply the fear of change, of the unknowns that change can bring.
He envisions growing whatever the combined carrier ends up being called, to include flights to destinations like Phoenix, Fresno, Sacramento, Japan and the Far East, even directly to Lihu’e and other Neighbor Island airports.
In the process, he fully intends to build a workforce of people who are genuinely happy to come to work every day, and build a successful company using some ideas that seem very simple.
To have a successful airline, just four things are needed, he said:
– Get passengers to their destinations on time
– With their bags
– Offer good in-flight food
– Offer good in-flight movies
That formula worked for Brenneman at Continental Airlines, which in six short years he turned around from a multi-million-dollar loser with shoddy employee morale and a place on the worst places to work list to a profitable entity people were begging to get employed at and one that still enjoys strong customer satisfaction.
Hawaiian and Aloha used to have some of the best on-time records in the business, but have gone from first to worst because they haven’t been able to turn the planes around on schedule with the stricter security requirements, he commented.
“This is a tough time in the airline business,” said Brenneman, 40.
To “make reliability a reality,” one of his many mantras, will require better technology at airports, the end of paper tickets (he said he hasn’t had a paper ticket in four years), and even, possibly, an entirely new fleet of airplanes.
While he likes Hawaiian’s new Boeing 717 interisland fleet, he still is negotiating with Boeing for an entire new fleet of airplanes.
Along the way, he intends to create a strong hometown airline people in Hawai’i can be proud of, and one that will allow the state to break free of what he sees as a dangerous reliance on mainland-based carriers to bring in the bulk of visitors the state enjoys.
“Hawai’i is incredibly dependent on other carriers,” and if a United, for example, decides it can make more money on a Chicago-Des Moines route than a San Francisco-Lihu’e circuit, United executives in Chicago will simply make the decision to end the transpacific service, he said. With a strong Hawai’i-based carrier, the state will at least be in a bit of a better position to control its own destiny.
He wants to help “create a product you’re proud of,” because if the customers win the employees win and the shareholders win, he said.
“We won’t have a great company unless everybody wants to come to work,” said Brenneman, adding that change won’t happen overnight. “Trust is built over time.”
But he is sure the day will come when his children get on one of his company’s commercial jets and, like at Continental, a flight attendant tells Brenneman’s children that she likes their father.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
