Aloha, Imua!
Southwest Airways unveiled its latest particular livery airplane Friday throughout an occasion at Lengthy Seashore Airport (LGB), celebrating the fourth anniversary of its first industrial flight to Hawaii.
The brand new Boeing 737 MAX 8 is dubbed Imua One (after the rallying cry within the native Hawaiian language), and it is the airline’s 14th state-themed paint job (together with America’s aircraft Freedom One, which is draped within the U.S. flag). Nonetheless, it stands out as the primary one with a design not centered across the state’s flag.
Need extra airline-specific information? Join TPG’s free biweekly aviation e-newsletter.
As an alternative, the airline labored with Honolulu-based Osaki Inventive Group and native Indigenous artist Herman Pi’ikea Clark to develop a complete design incorporating varied points of Hawaiian tradition and values blended with Southwest’s branding.
At an occasion with workers, media and officers from town and airport, the airplane flew above the runway, circled round and landed to rounds of applause. Then, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan gave a presentation.
Hawaiian minister Kordell C. L. Kekoa carried out a blessing and dedication, and airline workers and different dignitaries positioned an outsized conventional lei over the plane’s nostril for a photograph.
The design facilities round eight components that “symbolize ideas in Hawaiian tradition that additionally align with Southwest values,” the airline stated in a press launch.
In response to the airline, the ideas are largely conceptual and summary of their illustration. They embrace:
Join our day by day e-newsletter
- Ohana (household).
- Honu (turtle).
- Aina (land).
- Ama (assist).
- Hoku (star).
- Kai (ocean).
- Lokahi (unity).
- Imua (ahead).
The symbols are organized in bands spanning the plane over a shade gradient that Southwest says is supposed to evoke pictures of sundown — mixing from yellow to purple to blue. It additionally incorporates Southwest’s branding.
Imua One, with the tail quantity N8710M, can be the primary plane in Southwest’s fleet to function its new cabin design, together with energy ports at each seat and bigger overhead bins.
Following the Lengthy Seashore occasion, the airline will fly the brand new plane to Honolulu. It’ll go to every island to throw a celebration for workers members — a significant morale booster because the airline continues to shake off the model harm it incurred throughout a vacation season meltdown.
The airline’s 737 MAX fleet is especially nicely geared up for the Hawaii routes, though Southwest makes use of its older, dependable 737 workhorses as nicely. In actual fact, the airline grew the service through the 2019 and 2020 grounding of the newer MAX.
It took time for Southwest’s Hawaii service to completely mature, with interruptions brought on by the MAX grounding and the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline at present flies to airports in 5 Hawaiian locations: Honolulu, Maui, Kona, Hilo and Lihue. Flights go away from eight mainland cities:
- Lengthy Seashore, California.
- Oakland, California.
- Sacramento.
- San Jose, California.
- Los Angeles.
- San Diego.
- Las Vegas.
- Phoenix.
In contrast to different mainland airways that fly to Hawaii, Southwest additionally presents interisland service. As of April, Southwest was working 90 departures a day. Sixty of those have been interisland departures, placing renewed stress on Hawaiian Airways.