Aloha to cut
work force 5%

A fivefold earnings jump is
dampened by slowdown projections

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Aloha Airlines said today it will reduce its work force by 5 percent or more -- between 125 to 150 positions -- because of slower business in the fourth quarter.

The interisland airline, with about 2,400 employees, said it hopes to avoid layoffs by cutting the positions through attrition and voluntary early retirements.

Meanwhile the airline's privately owned parent, Aloha Airgroup Inc., reported a net profit of $4.9 million for the first nine months of the year, nearly five times the net of $1 million in the year-earlier period.

However, projections for the fourth quarter show lower interisland traffic because of the weakness in Japanese tourist arrivals, said Glenn Zander, president and chief executive officer.

This week Aloha reduced its daily schedule by 10 flights to 168 interisland trips.

The parent company, which also owns commuter airline Island Air, has a total of about 2,700 employees but said that the positions cuts will be concentrated in Aloha Airlines.

Zander said traffic in the first half of the year was strong and the bottom line this year also was helped by lower fuel prices and the state's landing-fees waiver that went into effect in September 1997.

Aloha Airgroup said it had a nine-months profit from operations alone of $9.5 million, compared with an operating profit of $1.8 million in the first nine months of 1997.

Zander called the results particularly gratifying because, unlike other carriers serving Hawaii, Aloha flies only interisland and didn't benefit from the Northwest Airlines Corp. strike.

While Northwest was shut down by a 15-day pilots' strike that ended Sept. 12, other mainland-Hawaii airlines, including Hawaiian Airlines Inc., picked up the extra passenger load.

Hawaiian Airlines earlier this week reported a record quarterly profit of $6.1 million for the third quarter. The airline said it was on track for a record year.