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Aloha Airlines notes
landing fees, fuel costs in
$1.8 million 1999 loss

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Aloha Airlines lost $4.4 million in the last quarter of 1999 after three profitable quarters, resulting in a full-year loss of $1.8 million for 1999, according to reports the airline filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Aloha had a small loss of $51,000 in the first quarter of the previous year but ended 1998 with a full-year profit of $5.3 million.

The airline said there were several factors that adversely affected fourth-quarter income. One was higher fuel costs, not completely covered by a fuel surcharge of $3 a trip.

Also, the airline had to start paying landing fees to the state of Hawaii at the beginning of September, after a two-year waiver.

Aloha settled, for an undisclosed amount, a legal battle with the state over excise taxes relating to leased aircraft. A year-end dip in tourism from Y2K worries also cut income, the airline said.

Aloha had revenues of $56 million in the last three months of 1999, up 5.5 percent from $53.1 million in the year-earlier quarter.

For all of 1999, Aloha had revenues of $229.8 million, up slightly from $228.6 million in 1998.