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Hawaiian Air pilots’
pay climbs with
new contract

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Star-Bulletin staff

The union representing 425 pilots at Hawaiian Airlines is expected to give final approval today to a long-awaited contract that provides for wage increases of up to 41 percent, in exchange for cuts in holiday and training pay.

The 3-year contract, ratified last week by the union's leadership, does not provide for retroactive pay for the 10 months that have passed since the pact opened for amendments in February.

Instead, it includes a $1 million signing bonus that will be divvied up based on seniority, said Kirk McBride, local chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association. Top pilots should get a $7,000 check within the next week, while those at the bottom of the scale will get about $250.

Hourly pay for all pilots increases under the contract, with senior long-haul pilots getting $163 an hour, up from $116 an hour. The raises are effective Sunday.

In return, the pilots will lose an hour of pay on vacation days -- down to three hours instead of the previous four -- bringing them to the same level as Aloha Airlines. On training days, pilots will get three hours of pay, down from five hours.

"We made the company more productive with some of this stuff," said McBride.

The contract also provides for Hawaiian pilots to fly the new 717 planes ordered by Hawaiian last year.

The planes are scheduled to begin arriving in February.

Four other unions -- representing flight attendants, machinists, dispatchers and baggage workers -- have yet to reach contract deals with Hawaiian.