Hawaiian Airlines Surprises With Breakaway Distribution Strategy

Hawaiian Airlines is quietly changing its distribution strategy.

Beginning April 1, travel agencies in the U.S. that use the "legacy technologies" of the global distribution systems Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport will be cut off from the airline's fares for travel within the Hawaiian Islands.

Plus, agencies using those channels to access content will have to pay a surcharge.

"For years, we waited, thinking we couldn't be the first with a surcharge strategy in the U.S.," said Tina Larson, managing director, distribution, sales strategy alliances. "We thought, 'We're small Hawaiian Airlines.' We thought we needed to wait until American or United did it."

It's rare for a mid-size, primarily leisure carrier to adopt such a strategy.

Yet Hawaiian Airlines went ahead on its own to copy overseas carriers in pushing travel agencies to switch from using old technical methods, known by the shorthand "Edifact," to a newer process referred to loosely as the "New Distribution Capability, or NDC."

Several airlines believe they'll sell more using the more modern form of data exchange. The travel distribution players Amadeus,