Hawaiian Airlines’ 787 business class takes to the skies

There’s a new aircraft soaring above the islands of Aloha as Hawaiian Airlines’ Boeing 787-9 lifts off on its maiden flight between Honolulu and San Francisco – and with it, the stunning Leihoku business class described as ‘a little slice of Hawaii’.

The 787 will be seen on the route daily until May 14, after which it will appear on selected flights between Honolulu and Los Angeles, as well as Maui-Los Angeles from May 15.

A second Dreamliner joined the ranks on April 11, with Hawaiian expecting to have a total of three of its 12 new twin-jets by the end of the year.

Hawaiian Airlines’ new Boeing 787 business class.

Meaning ‘garland of stars’, Leihoku class is inspired by the carrier’s Polynesian heritage and features Koa wood-patterned flooring and wall panelling, ceiling LED lights depicting constellations, and middle ‘cabana suites’ to get the holiday vibes flowing.

Arranged in a 1-2-1 layout, the 34 flatbed business suites are based on the Ascent design from Adient Aerospace, which adopts a 1-2-1 layout (compared the current 2-2-2 of Hawaiian’s Airbus A330 jets) with the following passenger-pleasing traits:

• privacy doors for all suites
• sliding privacy panels in the paired middle ‘Cabana Suites’
• an 18-inch HD video screen
• AC, USB and wireless device charging

Paired Cabana Suites in the middle of each business row are “a really important feature for Hawaiian Airline passengers who are usually celebrating a vacation or special occasion while they're visiting the island,” explains Adient Aerospace’s Stephanie Faulk.

Each suite sports a sliding privacy door.

“There’s a privacy divider, so if a traveller is by themselves they can put up the divider, but the (panel) does lower down – there’s two buttons that need to be pushed simultaneously in order for that to fully lower flat – so it allows for couples that are travelling together to have a full suite that feels like one harmonious cabana instead of two separate suites.”

However, while those coupled activities include “watching a movie together or having a meal together,” the outwards-angle of the seats means they don’t become a proper double bed.

Hawaiian Airlines' Cabana Suites are ideal for passengers travelling together.

Travellers will eventually, although not from the get-go, enjoy free high-speed WiFi provided by the Starlink network developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, with the satellite kit being rolled out across the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Airbus A330 and A321neo jets.

Speaking at the aircraft’s delivery in February, Hawaiian Airlines president and CEO Peter Ingram hailed the Dreamliner as “more than just a new aircraft,” but the representation of “an exciting growth phase for our company as we build on our 95 years of service and connect more people with aloha.”

Beds are fitted with a soft mattress protector, blanket and pillow.

Hawaiian Airlines exec Avi Mannis says the carrier began developing its 787 business class in 2017, with the intent that the first Dreamliner would arrive in 2021 (as with airlines around the world, that timeline became an early casualty of the Covid pandemic).

It started working with Adient Aerospace – a joint venture between Boeing and automotive seat-maker Adient – on a concept for the firm’s first twin-aisle business class seat, dubbed Ascent, and quickly became almost a design partner in the process.

“We were very much involved in the process,” Mannis recounts, “and I like to think there’s some of our DNA in the production seat that exists today.”

The paired middle seats are Cabana Suites in Hawaiian Airlines' new Boeing 787 business class.

“We wanted to bring a lot of natural materials into the cabin. Walking into the aircraft you see these sort of sinuous curved wood forms, which is something you don’t always see on an airplane, and really sets the tone that you’re going to have a different kind of experience.”

As it happens, however, Qatar Airways was the first airline to fly the Ascent on its new wave of Boeing 787-9s in mid-2021 – and apart from the usual “branding” customisations in colour, finish and materials made by any airline, there’s no practical difference between the Qatar Airways and Hawaiian Airlines seats, Faulk confirmed to Executive Traveller.

Almost everything that opens and shuts: Hawaiian Airlines' new Boeing 787 business class.

That’s by no means a bad thing, as anyone who’s flown on the newer Qatar Airways 787s can attest – the thoughtfully-designed seat sports most of the mod cons except for wireless Bluetooth streaming, which was still being refined during Ascent’s final stages of development.

Hawaiian’s 787 business class features some island-influenced aesthetic choices “which give a unique Hawaiian feel to the seat,” says Loreto Julian, from Seattle-based design consultants Teague.

Julian helped refine not just the seat but the Dreamliner’s entire cabin: the colours, the materials, the LED lighting patterns and of course the “simulated cabin sky” in business class, where passengers “will gaze up at a luminous star compass ceiling evoking the constellations that guided Polynesian voyagers at night.”

Starry starry night: inside Hawaiian Airlines’ Boeing 787 business class cabin.

“If you’re going on vacation, going to Hawai’i, as soon as you cross the threshold (of the 787 entryway) you're really brought into Hawaii and this welcoming environment.”

By the same token, the 787 can be “your last memory of your vacation… I might be going back home to Seattle and our rainy weather, but I’m still being transported from Hawai’i in that (vacation) environment.”

The entry of the 787 plays a large part in this, explains Julian, himself a native of Hawai’i.

“The most obvious thing in the world to do is to put a giant airline logo and brand panels at that door, and we very much didn't want to do that,” Julian reflects.

Passengers are greeted by a Koa timber-lined entrance.

Instead, there are “curved wooden slats that really create more of a hospitality atmosphere than a sort of a corporate airline space.”

“Being Hawaiian, one of the things that is important is being able to welcome your guests, whether that's at your home, at the hotel or whatever… so for the entry we created this really nice welcoming environment.”

Those slats and the flooring are made from a composite with the same red storied pattern as the native Hawaiian Koa tree, originally used to craft everything from outrigger canoes to surfboards and later guitars and ukuleles.

Even the flooring of the lavatories is “inspired by shimmering black volcanic sand”, while laminates and fabrics throughout the cabin “reflect the forms of native plants.”

Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner business class.

While Hawaiian Airlines’ Airbus A330s won’t be upgraded with these new suites, these hardy workhorses will continue to feature “on our larger US mainland markets and some of our international markets,” Mannis has previously shared with Executive Traveller.

“The 787 is a slightly larger aircraft and it’s got a much bigger business class cabin, so we can use the 787 in markets that are a little larger or have more premium demand.”

But the overall larger twin-aisle fleet will also let the A330 become “a really good sort of ‘pathfinder’ aircraft” for launching new routes, Mannis expects.

“As we’re starting up new markets, it’s got plenty of range and a product that we’re very happy with.”

A Virgin Australia partner, Hawaiian Airlines is currently not a member of any airline alliance, though a proposed merger with Alaska Airlines could see it enter the ranks of Oneworld. 

Additional reporting by Chris Ashton.