Hawaiian Air CEO To Step Down After 15 Years

Hawaiian Airlines chief executive Mark Dunkerley is to stand down after 15 years at the carrier, overseeing dramatic growth at the once struggling airline.

In announcing his retirement, Dunkerley said it had been “a heart-wrenching decision” to leave.

Hawaiian’s chairman Lawrence Hershfield paid tribute to the outgoing CEO saying “Mark’s abilities as an airline chief executive are evident in the phenomenal growth and success of Hawaiian Airlines over the course of his leadership.

“It is also a measure of his commitment to Hawaiian that in extending his tenure for 14 months he gave the Board time to consider options for his prospective replacement.”

Dunkerley joined Hawaiian in late 2002 when it was predominantly an inter-island carrier and helped grow it to an airline serving Asian and south Pacific destinations and almost a dozen US mainland routes.

During his tenure the airline went through its second bankruptcy, emerging from Chapter 11 in June, 2005.

In recent years, Hawaiian has added Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Seoul, Beijing, Auckland, Sydney and Brisbane to its route network, and has doubled the number of passengers carried since 2002 to 11 million annually.

“I am so proud to be associated with this company and our employees. Hawaiian Airlines is truly in a class of its own,” Dunkerley said in a statement.

He will be replaced by chief commercial officer Peter Ingram, who has been at the airline since December 2005, initially as chief financial officer. He will take up the CEO position in March 1, 2018.