Aloha posts
$11M profitThe strong earnings
more than wiped out
losses earlier in the year
Aloha Airlines had a strong third quarter, reporting a profit of $10.9 million.
In the year-earlier quarter the airline had a profit of $694,000, but since then it had shown losses until federal compensation gave it a profit in the second quarter of this year. The federal money was released in response to the airline industry's post 9/11 losses.
From operations alone, Aloha had a profit of $12 million in the three months through Sept. 30, more than six times the operating profit of $1.6 million it reported for the third quarter of 2002.
Revenues of $113.1 million in the latest quarter were up 26 percent from $90.1 million in the 2002 quarter.
The third-quarter positive result wiped out a net loss of $6.6 million for the first half of this year and was a strong turnaround, leaving the airline with a net of $4.4 million for the first nine months of 2003.
Top Aloha executives are in American Samoa for the inauguration of the airline's new Honolulu-Pago Pago service but Glenn Zander, president and chief executive officer, issued a statement.
"We're very pleased with the third-quarter results, which reflected an improved revenue environment including both our West Coast and interisland services," he said.
Aloha lost $43 million last year. About one-third of that was from an accounting change, but operations were running in the red, as the airline shared the aviation industry's tough recovery period after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Aloha, like other airlines, was also affected by diminished business from Asia because of the SARS epidemic.
This year Aloha and its competitor Hawaiian Airlines gained operating results from an antitrust exemption that allowed them limited leeway in dividing up the interisland market. Both airlines also have expanded in their mainland and Pacific services and have undertaken serious cost-control measures.
Aloha, like Hawaiian, has also gained from improved tourism figures as mainland-Hawaii travel rebounded.
As the main subsidiary of privately owned Aloha Airgroup Inc., Aloha Airlines does not have to make public financial disclosures to stockholders, but its financial results are reported to the federal government and eventually made public by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Those numbers do not include results from Island Air, the company's smaller affiliate that flies non-jet aircraft to some of the smaller destinations in the islands. Aloha Airgroup said earlier this month it had agreed to sell Island Air to mainland airline investors Gavarnie Holding LLC. That partnership said it will expand Island Air's fleet of five 37-seat de Havilland Dash-8 turboprops to nine quickly and more later.
Terms were not disclosed, but the deal is viewed as a win for Aloha, which can pass some unprofitable routes, such as Hilo-Maui, to a smaller and expanding Island Air.