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Hawaiian Airlines will cut 57 out of nearly 1,400 Hawaii-based non-union jobs by year’s end as a result of its merger with Alaska Airlines, the company announced, and more job cuts are likely over the next six to 12 months.

Hawaiian’s job cuts include 52 of 825 employees at its corporate headquarters and four of 213 at its air cargo hangar. One more worker will be cut from Hawaiian’s 87 employees working at its  passenger terminal at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. 

Together those facilities alone employ 1,125 non-union workers, Andy Schneider, executive vice president of Alaska’s “People Team” wrote in a letter dated Friday to Jade Butay, director of Hawaii’s Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

“Employment separations are expected to begin on or about December 31, 2024,” Schneider wrote.

Hawaiian Airlines for now remains separate from Alaska, while the companies go through a phased process of combining operations. Hawaiian is one of Hawaii’s largest private employers with some 7,500 employees, the vast majority holding well-paying union jobs. It’s also the isolated state’s dominant airline providing vital transportation for residents and cargo, as well as tourists that drive the economy.

And, at least for now, Hawaiian is the state’s sole major Hawaii-based carrier, following the demise of Aloha Airlines in 2008.

The layoffs announced Friday follow previous news that all of Hawaiian’s 6,000 union workers will remain employed by Alaska’s acquisition of Hawaiian. When announcing the deal’s closing in September, Hawaiian’s interim chief executive, Joe Sprague, said Hawaiian will maintain its corporate headquarters near the Honolulu airport and that only a “small number” of non-union workers would be let go.

But that “small number” of 57 workers is expected to grow as the companies integrate. 

Airline mergers are enormously complex undertakings, involving thousands of workers, varying corporate cultures and complicated operations. As a result, the  according to a prescribed, six-phase process that culminates with the two airlines being given a certificate to operate as one entity.

As the airlines move closer to being one, Hawaiian is likely to shed more non-union jobs, Hawaiian spokesman Alex Da Silva said.

“We expect some non-contract interim positions tied to specific integration milestones to conclude once projects are completed in the next 6 to 18 months,” Da Silva said.

The announced layoffs in Hawaii follow a series of one-on-one meetings with non-union workers about their future with Hawaiian, he said. 

“A vast majority of our approximately 1,400 Hawaiian Airlines non-contract employees received a permanent or interim position based in Hawaii with the combined company to continue to support Hawaiian’s extensive operational presence across the islands and the work to integrate both airlines,” Da Silva said.

The interim offers extend for at least six months from September, Da Silva said, and company hopes to retain most people for a year or longer, including some permanently.

In addition to the 57 people laid off in Hawaii, the company shed another 16 located on the mainland. The 73 employees included workers who either turned down offers or didn’t receive them.