Hawaiian Airlines appoints regional director for Aust and NZ

Hawaiian Airlines has announced the appointment of Gai Tyrrell to the position of regional director – Australia and New Zealand, based in Sydney. In this newly created position, Tyrrell will be responsible for overseeing all commercial activities and product distribution in Hawaiian Airlines’ fast-growing Australia and New Zealand markets.

“We are pleased to have Gai join our international sales team as we continue to maximize our company’s growth in the Australia and New Zealand markets,” said Theo Panagiotoulias, Hawaiian Airlines senior vice president – global sales & alliances. “Both Australia and New Zealand have been at the center of our international expansion over many years and we envisage continued growth from these key markets in our network.”

Hawaiian Airlines celebrated 10 years of non-stop service between Honolulu and Sydney earlier this year, and added a fourth non-stop weekly flight between Honolulu and Brisbane. The airline also announced that beginning Dec. 5, 2014, it plans to upgrade its Brisbane service to the 294-seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft, offering more capacity and more legroom for its travelers, and also adjust the flight schedule to allow for convenient connections from the U.S. Mainland. Flights from Honolulu to Brisbane will move to an afternoon departure to allow for seamless connections from Hawaiian Airlines’ U.S. West Coast destination gateways including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose, Seattle and Las Vegas and back.

Tyrrell brings more than 20 years of airline and travel industry experience to Hawaiian Airlines. She previously served as chief executive officer at Sabre Pacific, which provides technology, distribution and marketing services for travel industry clients. Prior to that, she held numerous senior leadership roles at different companies including chief operating officer at Jetset Travelworld Group, executive general manager at Flight Centre Ltd. – FCM Travel Solutions and general manager – industry sales Australia at Qantas Airways.