Pilots at Hawaiian Airlines must shave off their beards later this month as a part of the service’s merger with Alaska Airlines, as they search to standardize operations underneath a single working certificates.
Unlike many U.S.-based carriers, pilots at Hawaiian Airlines have been capable of put on beards for a few years. Part of the reason being because of cultural sensitivities in Hawaii, in addition to a differing interpretation of steerage from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
That, nonetheless, will change on April 20, when Hawaiian Airlines makes a “significant” change to its Flight Operations Manual, with pilots at a Honolulu-based service transitioning to the identical uniform and look requirements as their coworkers at Alaska Airlines.
The FAA has by no means banned pilots from carrying beards, however an advisory round courting again practically 4 a long time warned that particular air-tight oxygen masks utilized by pilots may not work correctly with the presence of facial hair which may break the air-tight seal.
Airlines have lengthy used this steerage to ban pilots from having beards or different types of facial hair, though the FAA has explicitly prohibited pilots from having beards.
Hawaiian Airlines was a uncommon exception, however following the merger with Alaska Airlines, the mixed service is standardizing working protocols underneath a single operator’s certificates.
Although Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines will function as seperate and distinctive manufacturers, underneath the hood, all the things would be the identical, together with uniform and grooming guidelines.
As first reported by Airline Geeks, the Alaska Airlines Group chief pilot, Scott Day, informed pilots at Hawaiian that “going forward, facial hair must meet specific requirements to ensure compliance with FAA guidance and flight deck safety, and beards will not be authorized.”
After dealing with a backlash from bearded pilots, the Alaska Airlines Group vice chairman of flight operations, Dave Mets, tried to calm tensions, saying:
“I fully understand that this is a policy decision many of you do not and may never agree with.”
Mets added that the airline had “absolutely no desire or intention to diminish the way Hawaiian Airlines and/or Hawaiian culture is celebrated and respected within our combined company.”
One of the explanations that the difficulty of pilot facial hair is so contentious is that more moderen analysis has solid a major quantity of doubt on claims {that a} beard might intrude with the particular oxygen masks utilized by pilots.
Last 12 months, the Journal of Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance revealed a examine by researchers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that discovered beards had no impact on the effectiveness of pilot oxygen systems.
To take a look at whether or not beards might have an effect on the oxygen masks, researchers put 24 volunteers in a hypoxia chamber to imitate the results of decompression whereas flying at 30,000 toes.
Some of the volunteers have been clean-shaven, whereas others had quick beards and a few had lengthy beards greater than 10mm in size.
The examine concluded that the volunteers with beards took no extra time to don the oxygen masks than the clean-shaven individuals, and there was no distinction within the “arterial saturation percent of oxygen” between any of the volunteers in the course of the decompression-like circumstances.
The analysis additionally examined whether or not smoke or noxious fumes might penetrate the masks when the wearer had a beard, and to check this, ‘highly volatile’ smelling salts have been wafted across the pilots as they wore the masks.
None of the pilots might detect any odor, suggesting that the masks remained hermetic.
The outcomes again up a earlier examine in 2016 that additionally concluded that beards don’t restrict the effectiveness of pilot oxygen programs. That examine was commissioned by Air Canada, and consequently, the airline dropped a prohibition on its pilots carrying beards.
That being mentioned, in 2025, Australian flag service Qantas moved to ban pilots from having beards at its short-haul QantasHyperlink subsidiary after a security evaluation by the British protection and aerospace firm QinetiQ concluded that beards did have the potential to intrude with a quick-donning pilot oxygen system.
In different phrases, the jury stays out as as to whether facial hair can intrude with pilot oxygen masks, or not. In the meantime, many airways defer again to FAA steerage, which hasn’t modified since 1987 when it was first revealed.
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