In AI answers, Hawaiian Airlines appears mostly as Alaska's partner, and as a ransomware footnote

This snapshot covers 250 benchmark questions asked of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok, measured on 2026-09-29. Hawaiian Airlines was named in 83 of the 1,250 answers. By assistant, that was 25 for Claude, 24 for Grok, 21 for Gemini, 7 for ChatGPT and 6 for Perplexity. Delta Air Lines (843 answers) and United Airlines (748) were named far more often.

In the nine stored answers we reviewed, Hawaiian is usually paired with Alaska. Grok's loyalty answer described "Alaska Airlines' Atmos Rewards (joint with Hawaiian Airlines)". Gemini's innovation answer credited Alaska with recent loyalty and digital innovation "following its integration with Hawaiian Airlines". Perplexity's answer on credit-card checked bags grouped the two carriers in one line. Claude's Seattle-to-Asia answer described Alaska's Tokyo Narita service as operated by "Hawaiian Airlines' long-haul aircraft".

Gemini's answer on a dependable airline for a family listed Hawaiian third, behind Delta and Alaska, saying its network is "more specialized" and that it has been recognized for on-time performance and low cancellation rates. The attributed credits for Hawaiian in this snapshot are thin: the credit categories are Not Substantive (3), Customer Experience (2) and Reliability & Operations (1).

Hawaiian also appeared in two answers to the data-breach question. Claude's answer said Hawaiian "suffered a ransomware attack earlier in the year". Grok's answer to the same question cited a Forbes piece on airline cyberattacks and named Hawaiian among the airlines.

Visibility by question intent ran from 12% on comfort onboard and routes and network, and 11% on reliability, down to 0% on employer questions. These are single-run figures and should not be read as fixed rankings.

PeakMetrics' news index shows 1,548 mentions of Hawaiian Airlines in the last 30 days, with the brand in the headline of 111. That is well below American Airlines (32,472), United (19,913) and Delta (14,417), and above Alaska's neighbors in the AI ranking such as Air Canada (4,917) only in the sense of AI visibility, not coverage volume.

The recent headlines follow two threads. Several syndicated stories say Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are betting on luxury, with new premium seating and lounges planned. Others cover operations: seven Hawaiian flight attendants falling ill after a cabin odor, and Alaska deploying a 737-890 to Hawaiian Airlines.

The press and the assistants both tie Hawaiian to Alaska, but they emphasize different things. Headlines this month focus on premium cabins and a health incident on board. The answers lean on loyalty (Atmos Rewards), route operations, a passing reliability mention, and the earlier ransomware attack.

Coverage volume also does not track answer visibility. Hawaiian has 1,548 news mentions against 3,404 for Alaska, yet in these answers it is often named as a supporting partner rather than the lead carrier. Airlines with much larger news counts, such as American Airlines, also appear far more often in the answers.

A comms team for Hawaiian would note how often the assistants define the brand through Alaska. In this snapshot, questions on loyalty, innovation and routes credit the combined Atmos program or Alaska's operations, and Hawaiian appears as an attachment.

The data-breach answers are the other item. Claude and Grok both put Hawaiian in an answer about exposed customer information, and Grok pointed to a Forbes article as a source. If that question matters to the brand, the sourcing behind it is worth tracking.

This is one snapshot of live answers, which vary between runs. It is a baseline to compare against later runs, not a trend.