Hawaiian Air’s
losses quadruple

Strong March traffic didn't offset
a slow January and February

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Hawaiian Airlines Inc. today announced a first-quarter loss of $2.4 million, more than four times the loss of $582,000 in the first quarter of last year.

Paul J. Casey, who joined the airline in April as president and chief executive officer, said a passenger increase in March was not enough to overcome poor tourism figures in January and February.

The quarter was also hurt by a 20 percent increase in the price of jet fuel, which added about $2.9 million to first-quarter operating expenses, Casey said.

The airline had an operating loss of $4.5 million for the three months ended March 31, compared with an operating profit of $396,000 in the year-earlier quarter. Revenues of $99.8 million in the latest quarter were up 6 percent from $94.1 million in the 1996 quarter.

The airline, a major carrier in the West Coast-Hawaii market in addition to its interisland and South Pacific routes, carried 43,000 fewer passengers in its scheduled services in the latest quarter compared with a year earlier, a decline of 3.4 percent to 1.23 million from 1.27 million.

For scheduled service, the quarterly passenger load factor, which measures how many seats the airline filled, dipped to 67.8 percent from 72.8 percent a year earlier. However, it increased its charter business by 11 percent.

Combining charter and scheduled services, Hawaiian had 1.3 million total passengers, a decline of about 2 percent from 1.32 million in the year-earlier period. It had a system-wide load factor of 70.9 percent, down from 75.2 in first quarter 1996.

Casey said Hawaiian still maintains one of the highest load factors in the industry. Hawaiian reported operating profits for six consecutive quarters until the last period of last year.

Casey said that while the first quarter is a traditionally low period, Hawaii's tourist industry experienced unusually weak travel demand in the latest quarter.

"Our results are a reflection of poor market conditions felt throughout the visitor industry during the first two months of the year. However, stronger traffic in March made it a profitable month for Hawaiian Airlines and our preliminary traffic figures for April indicate a continuation of this positive trend," he said.