HAWAIIAN AIRLINES PHOTO Hawaiian Airlines yesterday named Mark Dunkerley as president and chief operating officer.

Hawaiian hires
new president

Mark Dunkerley has held
a variety of airline jobs

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By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com

Hawaiian Airlines Inc. has opted for a relatively young but widely experienced aviation executive to take the day-to-day reins.

Mark B. Dunkerley, 39, who yesterday was named president and chief operating officer of Hawaiian, also holds international credentials.

He is up against some challenges. Hawaiian went through a costly effort to merge with competitor Aloha Airlines and both continue to suffer millions of dollars of losses as air travel declined after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The merger was called off in March. All along, Hawaiian had been moving ahead with a fleet renewal program worth nearly half a billion dollars.

In the first three quarters of this year, Hawaiian had an operating loss of more than $37 million and its net loss topped $43 million.

In early October, Hawaiian announced a 4 percent reduction in its work force, seeking to stop the losses.

Now, Hawaiian and its head-to-head interisland competitor Aloha are working under a special federal exemption from antitrust laws so they can jointly trim capacity on the main interisland routes in order to keep both airlines flying.

British-American Dunkerley rose through several companies, with a stint of a decade in jobs at British Airways.

He has a bachelor's degree in economics from the London School of Economics and a master's in aeronautics from the Cranfield Institute of Technology in Britain.

According to dates in the employers' biographical information, Dunkerley was 22 when he got his first aviation job as assistant to the chief executive of the Miami International Airport in 1985. He managed all aspects of the airport's operations until he left in 1989.

He then went to British Airways and Hawaiian said that from that time he rose through 10 years of increasing management responsibility, rising to senior vice president of British Airways' Latin America/ Caribbean division for 1997 to 1999.

At the beginning of June 1999, Dunkerley joined Worldwide Flight Services, based in Dallas, as chief operating officer. The company is an international supplier of ground services to the aviation industry.

In April 2001, he became executive vice president, based in Washington, D.C., of Roberts, Roach & Associates, a California-based aviation consultancy.

That job lasted about three months and on July 4, 2001, Sabena Airlines Group, the Belgian international carrier, announced Dunkerley had been appointed chief operating officer, responsible for all major operational activities.

In April of this year, he left Sabena. Dunkerley could not be reached for comment yesterday and neither could Hawaiian Chairman John Adams.

April was also the month that Robert Zoller, Hawaiian's president and COO, left the company. Paul Casey, vice chairman and chief executive officer -- who inherited the presidency as well when Zoller left -- departed in June.

Adams, leader of the investment group that controls Hawaiian, took on the titles of chairman, chief executive officer and president, and left chief operating officer off his list.

Now the board of directors has lightened Adams' load, passing the titles of president and COO to Dunkerley.

The airline did not disclose Dunkerley's salary. Last year, Zoller had base pay of $288,000, according to disclosures to shareholders. Adams was paid $367,000 but had additional income as a consultant to the airline. Casey's last year brought him $325,000 in salary plus $53,000 in other compensation.