WORKING WITH FOLKS WHO LOVE HAWAI'I

Q. How often do you travel for your job?

A. Often. I'm probably on the road at least once or twice a month. On the road, being an extended period of time. I'm responsible for all of our stations from Anchorage to Sydney. It's usually on the West Coast and at least once a year to the South Pacific.

Q. What kind of airline passenger are you?

A. I'm extremely empathetic. It's a very, very complicated business, lot of moving pieces. I think given the volume of people that travel and the complexities of travel post-9/11, I'm really empathetic. I get that it's hard work. This sounds corny but I really try to be as low maintenance as possible.

Q. Do you always fly on your own airlines?

A. For the most part, I fly on Hawaiian. There's something unique about Hawai'i. It's absolutely the people but it's also an attitude. After many, many years of using vendors on the Mainland we finally hired our own people (to provide counter customer service in Seattle and other Mainland cities). Lots of internal discussion about that — who's going to work for only three hours a day for relatively low wages.We've hired people who have an affinity for people and for Hawai'i.They're not really working for the wages, obviously — they're working for the flying benefits, a connection home. It is a chance for them to be around a culture and attitude that they emulate.

Q. They only work three hours a day?

A. That's all they do. Most of our flights launch off the coast or depart off the coast in the morning. In Seattle we fly three times a day so by 10 to 10:30, all those flights are gone. So that's when they end up doing the lion's share of the work. That's what's so exciting about this job. It's easy because of the place we call home. The task of motivating people, half of it's done because they're motivated by very different things. People are proud to be from here. We also have a kama'aina program on the Mainland. These are usually retired people who come to the airport and they don't do any of the functions but they play the 'ukulele, they dance and they sing and they basically soften the airport experience at check-in. They'll answer questions about where to go. They've retired and moved to the Mainland. We give them miles but they're basically volunteering.

Q. Where are those volunteers based, which Mainland cities?

A. They are located basically everywhere, Seattle, Portland and San Francisco; believe it or not, the only place we don't have them is Las Vegas. Part of that is the demographics of the market is all local.

Q. What's a typical day like?

A. I spend 50 percent of my time administratively. I have a daily baggage operations call. It's Monday through Friday so station management across the system participates. We talk about missing baggage from the day before. It's tedious in some ways. But it's very interesting in some ways. We've done a visual sweep of the baggage claim area by then. It's very common for us to reunite people with their bags from that telephone call. That's a significant event for my day. We also have the global call to talk about on-time performance. It's a flight-by-flight narrative and then discussion to talk about one-minute delays and anything over that.

Q. You're in a good position at Hawaiian these days for on-time performance?

A. There were the old days of HAL standing for Hawaiian Always Late. Now, it's Hawaiian Already Left. That's our motto, we depart on time. It's a dance, a choreography. The mantra from my department is: safe, on-time, customers with their bags. It's simplified procedures and it's happy employees. I flew for eight years. I really believe today we are very clear about what our mission is. It isn't rocket science. It is about providing safe, reliable transportation and treating people like individuals. A lot of that is permeating the way we manage. It is about allowing people to be who they are and giving them permission to make the right decision.

Q. Why did you want to work for the airlines?

A. My mom worked for Pan-Am for years. Back then, it was very cool and racy. That's sort of a bygone era. But the notion that you can get on an airplane and five hours later be in a completely different environment is still exciting. I think that's the key for us as well, when you do something over and over and over again, it's sometimes difficult to remember what it was like the first time. But lots of folks are coming to Hawai'i for the first time. For them it isn't routine; it shouldn't be routine. Wiser men than I have said you should do something you're passionate about, and I'm really passionate about this. It borders on the miraculous that all the moving pieces come together every day the way they do.

Q. What's the best thing about your job?

A. I work in an environment where creativity is encouraged. I'm provided with vision and then the people I work for step out of the way and let you go do it. I really value that; there's a lot of trust and flexibility to get your job done. It's something I've tried to mirror with the people I work with every day.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.