---

BACK TO TOP
|

Hawaiian Airlines sees increase in passengers

Hawaiian Airlines attracted more passengers in January than in the year-earlier period as traffic gained 2.2 percent to 457,123 from 447,183 a year ago.

For all of 2003, the carrier's passenger count edged up 0.2 percent to 5.60 million from 5.59 million in 2002.

Hawaiian also showed year-over-year increases last month in its scheduled systemwide operations for revenue passenger miles, available seat miles and load factor.

Its revenue passenger miles, which represents total miles flown times the number of passengers, rose 20.6 percent last month to 465.4 million from 386 million.

The company's load factor, which is the percentage of seating capacity used, was 80.2 percent in January, a gain of 11.6 percentage points from 68.6 percent in January 2003.

Available seat miles -- one seat available for one mile -- gained 3.2 percent in January to 580.6 million from 562.9 million.

Hawaii lifts ResortQuest results

ResortQuest International Inc., which manages 33 Hawaii properties through its Aston Hotels & Resorts Hawaii and Maui Condominium and Home subsidiaries, posted increases in occupancy levels and revenue per available room last quarter with strong performances by its Hawaii and other beach region properties.

The results weren't enough, however, to turn around the fourth-quarter fortunes of Nashville, Tenn.-based parent company Gaylord Entertainment Co., which completed its acquisition of Destin, Fla.-based ResortQuest on Nov. 20.

Gaylord had a loss of $14.8 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.6 million, or 8 cents a share, a year ago. It also had an operating loss in the quarter of $11.3 million vs. an operating loss of $4.3 million a year ago. Revenues from continuing operations rose 19.8 percent to $130.8 million from $109.2 million.

Fourth-quarter occupancy for ResortQuest increased 1.8 percentage points to 39.7 percent and the average daily rate rose to $111.99 from $107.60 in the fourth quarter a year ago. This resulted in revenue per available room of $44.43 last quarter, a 9.1 percent increase from a year ago. The increases were driven by strong performance in ResortQuest's Beach and Hawaii regions, Gaylord said. Total units under management by ResortQuest decreased to 17,746 for the quarter, down from 18,639 in the previous year's fourth quarter.

HPR back up to snuff

KHPR-FM 88.1 is beaming off a new antenna pumping out 36,000 watts of power.

The antenna was hooked up to the station's main transmitter on Wiliwilinui Ridge at 11:30 a.m. yesterday after six weeks of 1,100-watt, low-power operation. The installation was to have taken three weeks, but bad weather has interfered with travel to the transmitter site, which is accessible only by helicopter. During the delay, reception was intermittent or nonexistent for many HPR listeners.

"I'm very happy about this. It's been the longest six weeks of my life," said Michael Titterton, Hawaii Public Radio president and general manager.

The station was previously operating at close to its federally authorized 44,000 watts "but it was through an antenna. To say it was not optimally tuned for 88.1 is putting it mildly. It was kind of like having a V8 engine running on 5 cylinders. What we have now is a beautiful straight-6," he said.