Beyond Borders: Hawaiian Airlines Soars With Most Distinctive Branding

A follow on from the Beyond Borders study, new findings have revealed that Hawaiian Airlines ranks highest for distinctive branding among airlines. The study surveyed over 1,000 international travellers from the U.S. to assess their ability to recognise and correctly attribute various airline logos, planes and brand elements, providing some key consumer insights.

The research utilised the BAT score—an index combining Asset Recognition, Brand Attribution, and deducting for Misattribution—to evaluate brand performance.

Hawaiian Airlines Takes the Top Spot

Among the 18 airlines tested, Hawaiian Airlines secured the highest average BAT score across its branding elements, including its logo, icon, plane, and cabin crew uniforms. With a score of 123 out of a possible 200—indicating high recognition and low misattribution—Hawaiian Airlines outpaced all other competitors. By comparison, the lowest scoring airlines, JetBlue and Air France, both scored 36.

Full Airline BAT Score Rankings:

1. Hawaiian Airlines (123)
2. Delta (116)
3. Southwest (109)
4. Air Canada (108)
5. American Airlines (104)
6. United Airlines (99)
7. Aer Lingus (80)
8. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (75)
9. Alaska Airlines (74)
10. Lufthansa (69)
11. Emirates (67)
12. Spirit (63)
13. Singapore Airlines (60)
14. British Airways (56)
15. Turkish Airlines (50)
16. JetBlue & Air France (36)

When BAT Scores are contextualized by brand awareness/familiarity, a line of best fit emerges. Those above the line punch above their weight in terms of distinctiveness, with the opposite true for those below. 

Here we see Hawaiian Airlines punches well above its familiarity score, with Aer Lingus, KLM, Air Canada, Southwest and Delta all doing the same, to varying degrees.

Hawaiian Airlines was recently merged with Alaska Airlines, which took out ninth place in the overall brand ranking and straddles the line of best fit. While both brands utilise a character icon, Hawaiian Airlines demonstrates exceptional consistency and longevity in its application. Alaska Airlines use their icon across multiple touchpoints, but omit its inclusion in the logo. For optimal effectiveness, a Distinctive Brand Asset should be highly cohesive and consistently applied across as many touchpoints as possible.

The Hawaiian Airlines icon, Pualani (Flower of the Sky), too has an inherent link back to the islands, helping to connect the dots for consumers. It’s visually layered and compelling, drawing and holding attention longer than simplistic or overly modernised iconography.

For U.S.-based travellers, Hawaiian Airlines was the clear leader, thanks to its cohesive and recognisable brand assets.

Top International Performers: Air Canada and Aer Lingus

Air Canada and Aer Lingus stood out among non-U.S. airlines as top performers. Air Canada, with a BAT score of 108, benefitted from the widespread recognition of its iconic maple leaf symbol, which 80% of respondents correctly identified. However, the airline’s uniform did not serve as an effective brand touchpoint, reducing the overall score.

While uniforms don’t necessarily need to function as Distinctive Brand Assets, as their purpose often includes conveying professionalism and care, there is potential to enhance their impact. If a brand can blend key elements like style and professionalism with distinctive branding, uniforms could serve as a stronger touchpoint—similar to how delivery drivers are leveraged in the food delivery industry.

The findings also connected to earlier research on tourism branding. For example, the maple leaf and shamrock, iconic symbols for Canada and Ireland respectively, performed strongly in both national tourism branding and airline branding for their carriers, Air Canada and Aer Lingus.

Shown on the Distinctive Brand Asset Grid, these icons leverage the top assets from their countries of origin, the Canadian flag and the Irish shamrock symbol. One shortcut to successfully embedding an asset, is to piggyback off another.

Misattribution Challenges for Some Airlines

Turkish Airlines and British Airways suffered from high levels of misattribution. In particular, 34% of those who said they recognised the Turkish Airlines plane misattributed its branding to other airlines, and 15% mistook its uniform for Emirates.

British Airways also faced challenges, with many respondents confusing multiple assets for those of American Airlines, likely due to the similarity in colour schemes.

Hawaiian Airlines’ top performance highlights the critical role of consistent, cohesive branding across all visual elements.

Like any industry, airline brands can gain a significant advantage by identifying their key equitable assets and then embedding these assets with ruthless consistency across all available touchpoints.