Hawaiian Airlines is overhauling its onboard food-and-beverage program with pre-order dining in both First Class and Main Cabin, locally sourced snack partners, and a chef-driven menu developed with James Beard Award finalist Sheldon Simeon — positioning the carrier's inflight service closer to a curated foodservice program than a standard airline galley.
The Honolulu-based carrier announced the changes May 28, framing them as an extension of its signature island hospitality. Pre-order functionality gives guests in both cabin classes the ability to select meals before departure, a format that mirrors the build-your-own ordering mechanics now standard in quick-service and travel-plaza foodservice. The move addresses a persistent pain point in air travel: popular options selling out mid-flight.
Simeon, whose Tīnō restaurant on Maui earned him national recognition, developed a Main Cabin menu designed to reflect Hawaiʻi's multicultural culinary identity rather than generic airline fare. The collaboration is part of a broader airline-industry push to use chef partnerships as a brand-differentiation lever — a tactic that has migrated from premium cabins into economy as carriers compete on experience rather than price alone.
Huakaʻi by Hawaiian loyalty members receive two complimentary meals under the new program, a benefit the airline frames as a direct mahalo — Hawaiian for gratitude — to its frequent flyers. Loyalty-tied food perks have proven durable retention tools across travel and convenience-retail channels alike, where operators from Wawa to Casey's use meal discounts and free-item rewards to drive repeat visits and basket size.
Complimentary snack offerings are also being upgraded through new partnerships with local, island-made brands — an approach analogous to the regional-snack sets that forward-thinking c-store buyers have used to differentiate their center-store sets from big-box competition. No specific snack brand names or financial terms were disclosed in the announcement.
The program represents a meaningful shift in how Hawaiian Airlines thinks about the forecourt — or in this case, the galley — as a revenue and loyalty driver rather than a cost center. Whether the pre-order model reduces food waste and improves per-passenger attachment rates will be the metrics to watch as the airline scales the program across its route network.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
