For many years, Southwest has honored its largest destinations by painting an airplane with the state flag. The very first was, to the surprise of nobody, Texas One, painted in 1990 to celebrate the airline’s 20th anniversary. That was followed by Arizona (1994), California (1995), Nevada (1999), New Mexico (2000), Maryland (2005), Illinois (2008), Florida (2010), Colorado (2012), Missouri (2015), Tennessee (2016), and Louisiana (2018). For its latest undertaking, honoring the state of Hawai’i, the state flag is burdened with all sorts of baggage — and not the kind that flies free — so Southwest had to think this through carefully.
It isn’t a shock that Southwest would choose Hawai’i as the next state in its flag livery series. After all, the state has become rather important to the airline. It only started serving the islands in March of 2019, but by July of this year, the plan is to have nearly 500,000 departing seats from one of the five Hawaiian airports that Southwest serves. That’s good enough to be the 12th largest state for the airline, though interestingly it’s wedged between Georgia and New York, two states which don’t have a special livery.
Once the decision was made to pick Hawai’i, I can only speculate about how the internal process went. The natural progression would be to paint the state flag on the airplane, but to many of the kānaka — or native Hawaiians — that flag is a painful reminder of their lost homeland thanks to the illegal annexation by the US 130 years ago. That’s why you’ll often see locals flying the state flag upside down, a symbol of a nation in distress.
Painting the airplane in that flag would at best be divisive and at worst be panned across the board. At the same time painting it using the alternate 20-year old green/red/yellow flag that symbolizes the sovereignty movement would be too political in its own right. (But let’s be honest, this would look pretty cool on an airplane.)
Instead, Southwest did the smart thing and decided to go a different route, ignoring the flag entirely and instead painting the airplane with something new. It turned to a local company called Osaki Creative Group to design the vision, and it worked with a “Cultural Practioner” to presumably try to avoid offending people. Lastly, it set about putting it on an airplane.
Paint was done in Spokane, and the airplane was flown down to Long Beach where it was unveiled last Friday, April 28. I was able to go to the airport for the ceremony.
My first impression upon seeing the airplane fly past and do a go-around was that the colors were more muted than I would have thought. The finish appeared less vibrant than you see on the regular Southwest fleet, but it’s also hard to appreciate the livery from afar. And the hazy day after the marine layer burned off wasn’t exactly providing the ideal light.
Once the airplane parked next to us, I could really get a look at the airplane. I took several close-up shots so I can walk you through what’s on it. Let’s take a tour.
The airplane is not named Hawai’i One but rather Imua One. The concept of imua is to move ahead with purpose and spirit. The blue at the front turns into purple/red/orange/yellow to, as Southwest says, represent “the evolution from night to day, and honors the Hawaiian history of journeying the Pacific by using wind, and following the guidance of the sun, stars, and moon to navigate.”
On the body of the aircraft, there is first a lei with several different types of flowers in it. The different flowers are by design, choosing unique flowers to represent the different islands. They are meant to represent lōkahi for unity and harmony. Southwest takes this to mean “Succeed with Teamwork.”
Behind the flowers — in the purple — are paddlers in an outrigger canoe. This pushing forward is meant to represent imua, or for Southwest it’s “Go forward with strength, courage, and strong spirit.”
Behind the outriggers, we have the waves of the ocean, or kai, which makes sense since that’s where outrigger canoes would be. The ocean is included to “Harness good energy.”
Behind the ocean and most prominent on the engines are the triangles to represent ʻOhana, or family. Southwest gives this further meaning as “Root in relationship.”
Next is inverted red and black colors which represent the ʻĀina, or the land. These look like volcanoes, or at least mountains, to me. And for Southwest this means “Find Common Ground.”
As we move into the orange, we see the honu, or the turtle, which represents “Move with Perseverance.”
In the yellow in the back we have some chevrons pointing up which are not explained, so I don’t know what that is suppose to represent. After that, we come to the stars, or hōkū. There are five of those, and they represent the five airports that Southwest serves in the islands. This is there to “Guide with Purpose.”
Lastly, we have the woven look which apparently means ama (or ʻama? I can’t find the word used this way, so I’m not sure.) This is supposed to be about support, or as Southwest explains “Connect to Strengthen and Balance.”
And behind that, we have the Virgin Orbit 747, hoping someone will save that company. But I digress.
Overall, this airplane tells a story about Hawai’i and its people. The tradition of storytelling in Hawai’i historically used all sorts of methods from song to spoken word and dance, but now Southwest has decided to put this into its aircraft, carrying the story all over the US.
The natural question you might ask is… does this matter? It seems like a lot of expense and effort. Beyond the avgeek community, does anyone really care? And the answer is, it depends who you ask. I think the people that find this most meaningful are those who work in the islands for the airline. But beyond that, there are plenty of employees with Polynesian backgrounds who work around the system, especially on the West Coast.
I saw many of these people at the airport on Friday. Some work in Long Beach. Others had been flown in from the islands. Another was an Oakland-based flight attendant who had worked the flight down from Spokane and would fly it on to Honolulu. There was a lot of pride and appreciation for the work that went into this airplane.
Some may call this a case of cultural appropriation, including the use of a kahu (priest) to bless the airplane. But I think there’s real intention and purpose there that makes it more than just a meaningless marketing statement. I’m sure some will bristle at a Texas-based airline painting an airplane this way, but when that Texas-based airline has a significant number of employees with Hawaiian heritage, it becomes a tribute and a valuable one at that.
For a company like Southwest, making sure your employees feel cared for and appreciated is no easy task, but it’s an important one. Though many may feel it’s a waste of time or money, this does matter for many of the people who work for the airline above all else. That’s something airlines have often failed at over the years, and it’s one thing Southwest still does right.
