Hawaiian Airlines said about 40 percent of the planned layoffs involve Mainland employees. RICHARD AMBO | Honolulu Advertiser

The move will save the state's largest airline about $4 million a year and comes as Hawaiian is facing soaring fuel prices and increased competition on its interisland and Mainland routes.

Hawaiian said the reductions — less than 3 percent of the company's total payroll but about 20 percent of the management staff — are driven more by changing consumer behavior than by low fares.

"This doesn't signal a retrenchment or a retreat," said Hawaiian's chief executive officer, Mark Dunkerley.

"Typically, when you see cutbacks, they're borne out of some immediate pressing need. They tend to be indiscriminate and not very well thought through. We want to draw a pretty clear distance with that type of cutback."

Hawaiian said the layoffs were the result of six months of study.

The layoffs include 47 of its 224 management positions.

None of the jobs involves the airline's roughly 3,000 unionized workers, and about 40 percent of the layoffs are on the Mainland.

Dunkerley said the cuts include some 20 workers in Hawaiian's information technology division, which is in the process of being outsourced to vendors in India.

"Even after this decrease, our workforce will be bigger than it was a year ago, and we will continue to grow," Dunkerley said.

The company said that laid-off employees will receive severance and can apply for positions in other areas of the company.

Founded in 1929, Hawaiian is the state's oldest and biggest carrier, with 3,493 employees, following today's cuts.