The 1995 figure was distorted by a $12.1 million noncash charge in accounting for fleet changes, but without it the company would still have had a $6.9 million loss that year.
From operations alone, the parent of Aloha Airlines and Island Air said it made a profit of $8.6 million last year, compared with an operating loss of $8.3 million in 1995.
Most of that came from a move to standardize the Aloha Airlines fleet to all Boeing 737-200 aircraft, said Glenn R. Zander, president and chief executive officer.
"The aircraft themselves are less expensive. They have lower lease rates, lower maintenance, less costs in crew" than the mix of other 737 models the airline had been flying, he said. Zander said the change let the airline cut its annual operating costs by $10 million. However it faced a 23.6 percent jump in fuel prices that added $6 million to its costs.
1996 operating revenues were up 5 percent at $248.3 million.
Zander said the cost reductions were made without having to get concessions from unions.
Aloha Airgroup's two airlines together carried 5.4 million passengers last year, he said.
The company saw a softness in passenger traffic in the last four months of the year and it continued through January and February, with traffic down about 3 percent from a year earlier, but the first quarter of 1996 had been very strong, Zander added, and March bookings look good.
Aloha does not have to publish its financial reports because it has been a private company since a management-led leveraged buyout in 1987. However, it did continue to issue public financial reports for a time, starting with the announcement of a profit of $5.6 million for 1987.
After reporting a net loss of $7.2 million for 1992, Aloha stopped issuing public financial statements until it made a turnaround in the first quarter of last year.
As a public company, competitor Hawaiian Airlines Inc. must issue its reports publicly. It reported a net loss of $3.9 million for the final quarter of 1996 and a net loss of $5.1 million for the whole year. But the airline had an operating profit of $2 million for all of 1996.
The third interisland carrier, Mahalo Air, is private and does not issue financial reports.