The News-Tribune piece does provide a lot more information about why the Hawaiian Airlines relationship soured, and about why AS thinks it can compete to Hawaii on a 737 versus NW's 757 and HA's widebody 767.

While the interview points out, in terms of comfort, the fuselage of a 737 and a 757 are the same width (and, admittedly, a 757-300 is so long is seems like a clown car when it's loading or unloading), one benefit of the 757 is that it has 24 first class seats to the 737's 16 -- perhaps better if you're looking for awards in first. Assuming NW releases the inventory.