“HA” — the airline code, that is — is no more, and it’s no laughing matter. The historic Hawaiian Airlines callsign, used on tickets and in chatter between pilots and air traffic controllers for generations, was retired Wednesday. Now, Alaska Airlines’ “AS” is used on Hawaiian flights’ boarding passes and airport displays, reflecting the homegrown company’s acquisition by the Alaska Air Group and their official merger under a single operating certificate.

More big changes took place Wednesday, chief among them appointment of a new Hawaiian Air CEO: Diana Birkett Rakow, the first woman to take the helm. Hawaiian Air passengers must brace themselves, though: The airline is also retiring its striking, shades-of-blue uniform, patterned with botanical images by Native Hawaiian designer Sig Zane of Hilo. Another design has been commissioned by Alaska, with Zane’s participation, to reflect the airlines’ joined identity.

Hawaiian’s distinctive tail art and free meal service on long-haul flights will continue — though they’re not guaranteed in perpetuity.

Customer feedback — and ticket sales — will play a part in what comes next. Alaska will need to demonstrate a continued dedication to the culture of aloha — as in courtesy and attention to the comfort of passengers, and attunement to the gentle grace of tropical island life — that is not swamped by impersonal corporate mandates.

Alaska is maintaining Hawaiian Air’s headquarters (technically now regional headquarters) in Honolulu. Keeping the administrative presence and CEO in the islands show that there’s an ongoing commitment to Hawaiian and recognition of its unique identity, said outgoing Hawaiian CEO Joe Sprague, who’s retiring. “When we say ‘The brand is here to stay’ … we are putting actual action behind that commitment.”

With this merger and the major changes that rival Southwest Airlines has initiated — including reserved seats and redesigned cabins with premium sections — frequent fliers have the opportunity to approach their flying options with fresh eyes. Long-haul routes leaving the islands have been eliminated, but other opportunities have emerged, and competition continues.

Many readers have reported that since the combining of Hawaiian and Alaska’s rewards programs, certain hard-won HawaiianMiles perks have been lost. Hawaiian Air fliers can no longer use those program miles to upgrade their seating, for instance, and that’s aggravating. Doling out disappointments to the most loyal Hawaiian fliers is the kind of unforced error that should be avoided — and Alaska would do well to reach out to those fliers who’ve been affected.

Significant details have yet to be worked out on this “integration,” as it’s being called. Joint labor contracts covering pilots, flight attendants, maintenance technicians, airport agents and dispatchers must be negotiated to reflect the new operating structure, with important issues such as job retainment guarantees and the distribution of seniority at stake. Existing contracts remain in effect until new agreements are reached.

Hawaiian’s labor force now is about 7,300 systemwide, with 6,600 based in Hawaii; the airline eliminated 325 “non-contract” (non-union) jobs and added 646 union positions over the last year. Alaska says no more jobs will be eliminated between now and New Year’s Day, though that’s only two months away; contract negotiations may reveal more.

When Hawaiian Airlines was acquired by Alaska just over a year ago, on Sept. 18, 2024, that ended nearly a century of Hawaiian’s existence as an independent operator, which started as the scrappy Inter-Island Airways in 1929. Post-acquisition, integration into one corporate entity with Alaska at the helm has been the game plan, and on the whole this serves island fliers. The alternative — with Hawaiian Air drowning in debt after COVID-19’s air travel deep freeze — might have been bankruptcy and dissolution.

Still, nostalgia arises at the thought that flyers will never again see that familiar HA on our boarding passes.

Travel news website Beat of Hawaii, its online pages tinted old-photo sepia, evoked the bittersweet feelings of memory and loss, opining, “Retiring the HA call sign isn’t just an administrative change. It’s the end of a voice and a history: every clearance, every landing, every exchange between pilot and tower.” Sad, and true.

The end of the “HA” callsign and single certificate grouping, along with changes in staffing, routes and rewards, make it clear that a defining chapter in the state’s aviation history has ended. Locals already know the feeling. It was even more painful when Aloha Airlines closed down in 2008, and many other changes have followed.

Hawaiian Airlines, as generations of locals have long known it, is dead; long live Hawaiian Airlines. While paying tribute to sepia-toned memories, islanders must insist these corporate changes don’t diminish prospects for continued aloha in flight, and investments in community. Retaining that precious spirit and level of commitment to passengers and crew alike is now the “integrated” airlines’ joint kuleana.

All evacuees recently sent to mass shelters in Anchorage after a devastating Western Alaska storm forced them from their homes have been placed in longer-term, non-congregate housing, officials said Friday.

“This transition will help families as they continue to put their lives back together,” said Bryan Fisher, director of the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, in a statement.

Earlier in October, ex-Typhoon Halong displaced scores of residents from their Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta communities after the storm’s powerful winds and flooding severely damaged or destroyed homes and infrastructure across the region.

A mass evacuation effort resulted in more than 650 people arriving in Anchorage in the storm’s wake, with many ending up in mass shelters at Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center and Egan Civic and Convention Center while officials looked for more suitable long-term shelter situations.

On Friday, the State Emergency Operations Center said it had finished moving all evacuees — 379 people in total — who had been staying at Anchorage’s two mass shelters into hotels and closed the spaces.

Evacuees who had been sheltering in Bethel have also been placed in non-congregate housing, the State Emergency Operations Center said in a separate Friday statement.

Some shelters will remain in “standby status for the coming days” to accept potential evacuees before placement into non-congregate settings, according to the State Emergency Operations Center.

Officials started moving hundreds of evacuees from congregate shelter spaces in Anchorage into longer-term housing earlier this week while in Western Alaska, crews raced to clean up and winterize communities, or conduct basic repairs in villages, so displaced residents can start returning home.

It’s unclear how long evacuees will remain in the long-term shelters, said Vivian Korthuis, CEO of the Association of Village Council Presidents.

“It’s very stressful right now, but in the long run, things will work out, and we just need to keep on moving forward,” she said.

AVCP, a regional nonprofit that supports and advocates for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta’s 56 tribes, held a media briefing Friday afternoon to detail its current relief work in affected communities and long-term disaster response priorities.

The organization, alongside others like the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp., Alaska Organized Militia and Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection, has been working to make homes and communities livable since officials wrapped up mass evacuations.

“These relief efforts are not a short-term thing,” said AVCP spokesperson Dendra Chavez. “This is going to be a long-term effort that we’re all working on.”

While work continues in villages for displaced residents to return, officials said they will continue to help evacuees who have moved into longer-term shelter housing in Anchorage access disaster recovery services and financial assistance.

Other resources, like a Midtown Anchorage disaster resource assistance center, will also remain open, Fisher said in a statement.

“We will continue to work with organizations providing services to storm survivors to ensure their needs are met,” he said.

As of Friday, 1,177 people affected by the storm had applied for state disaster recovery aid, while more than 320 had applied for individual federal aid unlocked by President Donald Trump’s Oct. 22 federal disaster declaration, according to a State Emergency Operations Center statement.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The first African-American female Judge appointed to the Alaska Judiciary is retiring this week — Judge Pamela Scott Washington.

Former Governor Sean Parnell appointed Washington to the Anchorage District Court on August 9, 2010, making history in the process. Prior to Washington. Superior Court Judge Larry Card was the first Black Judge in the state.

“I hadn’t thought about being special because I was the first African-American woman. And I got educated by that from the newspaper,” Washington said.

Washington’s career, trailblazing status, and retirement were celebrated at a party on Thursday evening, hosted by the Alaska Black Caucus.

In the span of her 15 years on Alaska’s Court Bench, Washington served as the Presiding Judge Mental Health Court, and Co-Chair of the Alaska Supreme Court Fairness, Diversity, and Equality Commission. Shortly before going into retirement, Washington was sworn in as the newest president of the National Association of Women Judges.

Reflecting back on her time on the bench, and her nearly 40 years in the legal industry, Washington said she never anticipated being a “trailblazer” when she started, but relishes the impact that she made.

“People experience justice, not just… it’s just not just done,” Washington said. “It’s seen, it’s experienced, it’s felt, and I think if my colleagues recognize that it’s the entire… the administration of justice is a whole process.”

“And so sometimes you can just be kind. People might not like your decision, but they’re going to remember how they experienced you.”

Having served for so long, working with judges and lawyers across the country, even serving on an advisory committee of only five American judges to Pope Francis, Washington’s resume is lengthy. Of all that, Washington said the highlight of her career is the community she served, speaking at schools, and leaving an impact outside of the courtroom.

“I think the thing that I’ve learned the most is that being a public servant and having people recognize you in the grocery store, letting them see that you’re just like them,” Washington said. “We’re doing life the same, doing life together. I think that’s how people trust the system better, if we could be more transparent, more open.”

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