3 Ways Hawaiian Airlines Transformed the Day-of-Travel Customer Experience

Hawaiian Airlines, the largest and longest-serving airline in Hawaii, is renowned for its authentic hospitality. The company continually innovates to make its travel experience as seamless and stress-free as possible. 

Working with Airship, the airline transformed the traveler’s day-of-travel experience with real-time updates and user-friendly features.

The Travel Experience Challenge 

Travel days are stressful, and anxiety and stress can build in a brief moment. Today’s travelers expect fast, transparent communication to manage their journeys (and peace of mind) effectively. To meet these growing mobile-first demands, Hawaiian Airlines set ambitious goals:

• Increase mobile wallet boarding pass adoption
• Boost opt-ins for app push notifications
• Grow customer satisfaction

3 Strategies to Maximize Value at Every Touchpoint

With a focus on simplifying the traveler’s journey and delivering convenience every step of the way, Hawaiian Airlines implemented a full suite of Airship solutions:

Driving Wallet Adoption
To make day-of-travel notifications more accessible, Hawaiian Airlines introduced Google Wallet boarding passes to complement existing Apple Wallet passes and increase reach across platforms. By running targeted in-app automation campaigns, they educated customers about the benefits of leveraging wallets to keep track of travel changes and streamline boarding. The result? A 28% year-over-year increase in mobile wallet adoption.

Boosting Push Notification Opt-Ins
Through a targeted Scenes campaign designed to educate about Hawaiian’s new “Ready to Board” alert, the brand encouraged travelers to opt in to push notifications. The results exceeded expectations, with a 23% increase in opt-in rates and engagement rates performance in the 90th percentile for the Travel app store category.

Revolutionizing Updates with Live Activities
During a hackathon, Hawaiian Airlines became the first airline to launch Live Activities powered by Airship. Within two weeks, the feature was live and delivered real-time updates pinned to travelers’ lock screens. Customers using Live Activities initiated  4.6X more app sessions than those that didn’t enable it.

Laying the Groundwork for Sustained Engagement

Beyond channel engagement, Hawaiian’s transformation paved the way for a long-term relationship that looks beyond day-of travel — and it paid off. The brand saw 13% YoY growth in audience engagement and 6.5X more registrations from customers opening its app for the first time.

Looking ahead, Hawaiian Airlines aims to build on day-of-travel momentum by optimizing omnichannel journey orchestration: the goal is to drive synergy across all touchpoints and increase loyalty program enrollment and usage. The airline also plans to use Airship Scenes to deliver consistent, seamless customer experiences across onboarding, news and app updates.Looking to go deeper? You can read the full story here. We’d love to hear about your priorities and goals for 2025, and show you how Airship can accelerate your results. Book a meeting to learn how you can take actionable steps now to deepen engagement and satisfaction.