Hawaiian Holdings chief executive Mark Dunkerley will retire on 1 March 2018, the airline announces.
Peter Ingram, currently chief commercial officer of Hawaiian, will succeed Dunkerley on that day, the parent company of Hawaiian Airlines says.
Dunkerley will leave Hawaiian 15 years after joining it as chief operating officer in December 2002.
Hawaiian named Dunkerley chief executive in June 2005, after which Dunkerley steered the airline through a major international expansion and fleet overhaul that included acquisition of a fleet of 23 Airbus A330-200s.
"This has been a heart-wrenching decision,” Dunkerley says in a 16 November media release. “I am excited by the new opportunities ahead of me and I am confident that Peter Ingram and the team will lead the company to further success.”
During Dunkerley's tenure, Hawaiian added routes to cities such as Auckland, Beijing, Brisbane, New York, Osaka, Sapporo, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo, the company notes.
Since December 2002, the carrier has doubled its annual passenger numbers and workforce, and quadrupled its annual revenue, says Hawaiian.
Hawaiian hired Ingram as chief financial officer in December 2005, about six months after it exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Ingram became chief commercial officer in 2011, a position in which he oversees marketing, sales, revenue management, network planning, loyalty programmes and cargo.
"I am humbled by the board’s confidence in me and excited by the opportunity to lead an incredible team as Hawaiian’s CEO,” Ingram says in the release. “Mark has been an inspirational leader for our company and mentor to me and many others."
Ingram will take the helm as Hawaiian continues executing the fleet transition started under Dunkerley.
The airline's first Airbus A321neo arrived in Honolulu today, ahead of a January entry into service. The company has orders for 17 more of the types, which it intends to deploy between Hawaii and the US mainland.
All 18 of the A321neos are scheduled to be delivered by the middle of 2020, Flight Fleets Analyzer shows.
Hawaiian also has orders for six A330-800neos, with deliveries scheduled for between August 2019 and November 2021, the database shows.
Hawaiian says the A321neos will free up its widebodies to launch more international routes, with executives highlighting Asia, and particularly China, as ripe with growth opportunities.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
