Hawaiian Airlines, the premier global carrier for leisure travel to Hawai‘i, today announced that Adient Aerospace and Collins Aerospace will supply the seats for its new Boeing 787-9 aircraft scheduled to enter the airline’s transpacific route network in 2021.
Hawaiian becomes the launch customer for Adient Aerospace – a joint venture between The Boeing Company and Adient, the world leader in automotive seats – in developing lie-flat Premium Cabin seats for its incoming Dreamliner fleet. In Collins Aerospace, the airline expands its partnership with a manufacturer renowned for crafting lightweight, comfortable and spacious Main Cabin seats.
“We couldn’t be more pleased for Adient Aerospace and Collins Aerospace to join us in creating a distinctively Hawaiian cabin experience in our future flagship aircraft,” said Avi Mannis, senior vice president for marketing at Hawaiian Airlines. “Our guests will enjoy the island-inspired comfort and warm hospitality for which we’re known, while relaxing in seats that represent the cutting edge of innovation in seating technology.”
Since becoming operational in late 2018, Adient Aerospace has focused on refining its Ascent Seating System – a modular premium lie-flat seat featuring double suites and designed specifically for the wide-body cabin of the 787-9 – to address the industry’s need for more choice, capacity and quality in aircraft seats. In its new pursuit to redefine luxury travel to Hawai‘i, Adient Aerospace will tailor its flexible seat to delight Hawaiian’s leisure guests such as couples and families who value a blend of shared and private experiences, while providing enhanced functionality for business travelers.
“We are excited to announce Hawaiian Airlines as our launch customer for the Ascent Seating System,” said Adient Aerospace CEO Alan Wittman. “We look forward to working with Hawaiian Airlines, providing a fresh perspective in cabin quality and comfort to improve the passenger experience.”
In the Main Cabin, guests will enjoy Collins Aerospace’s Aspire seats, the industry’s lightest, full-featured product in its class. Its modern design maximizes seat space, offering guests more shoulder and hip room, along with ergonomically contoured back and arm rests. The seatback can accommodate a large in-flight entertainment screen, and provides generous storage, along with practical tray table features. Hawaiian features Collins Aerospace’s Pinnacle Main Cabin seats on its fleet of narrow-body Airbus A321neo aircraft.
“This is a significant agreement for us as we build on a strong relationship with Hawaiian Airlines. As the widest seat available for a wide-body aircraft, Aspire is uniquely designed to provide their passengers with maximum living space,” said Colin Mahoney, vice president, Business Development, Interiors for Collins Aerospace. “Aspire offers an enhanced comfort system with an advanced kinematic mechanism that cradles the passenger during flight.”
Hawaiian last year announced it would purchase 10 new 787-9 aircraft, with rights to acquire an additional 10 aircraft. The 787-9’s innovative and light composite airframe will allow Hawaiian to pressurize its spacious cabins at a far lower altitude, creating a more comfortable and quiet setting for guests. Additional amenities include extra-large windows with dimmable LED shades, and larger overhead luggage bins. Powered by General Electric GEnx engines, Hawaiian’s Dreamliner aircraft will deliver excellent fuel efficiency and operational performance, making it an ideal aircraft for the airline’s broad network of non-stop flights connecting Hawai‘i with North America, Asia and the South Pacific.
About Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian® has led all U.S. carriers in on-time performance for each of the past 15 years (2004-2018) as reported by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Consumer surveys by Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and TripAdvisor have placed Hawaiian among the top of all domestic airlines serving Hawai‘i.
Now in its 90th year of continuous service, Hawaiian is Hawai‘i’s biggest and longest-serving airline. Hawaiian offers non-stop service to Hawai‘i from more U.S. gateway cities (12) than any other airline, along with service from Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa and Tahiti. Hawaiian also provides, on average, more than 170 jet flights daily between the Hawaiian Islands, and over 260 daily flights system-wide.
About Adient Aerospace
Aerospace, a joint venture between Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company and Adient (NYSE: ADNT), the global leader in automotive seating, is developing a portfolio of seats for new airplane and retrofit configurations. Adient Aerospace has opened a customer service center in the Seattle, Washington area, with product development underway in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Adient Aerospace is initially developing lie-flat business class seating offerings for widebody airplanes.
