Sandra Nori, an Australian tourism minister, laughed yesterday as she looked at a scale model of a Hawaiian Airlines plane during a launch of the airline's new services in Sydney. Performers from Hawaii's Polynesian Cultural Center, Larissa Hekan, left, and Kuhio Yim looked on. Meanwhile, Hawaiian Airlines said its employees received $1.9 million in profit-sharing bonuses in the first quarter.
Hawaiian workers
get $1.9MThe airline's employees won bonuses
under a profit-sharing agreement
Hawaiian Airlines, which posted a record $77.5 million operating profit in 2003 despite being in bankruptcy, has paid out $1.9 million in first-quarter profit-sharing bonuses to union and nonunion employees who agreed to concessions last year.
First flight from
Hawaiian will welcome its inaugural flight from Sydney, Australia, at 11:10 a.m. today at Honolulu Airport. Flights will operate four times weekly and are timed to connect with incoming services from six mainland U.S. cities.
Down Under
The company said yesterday that $7 million in employee profit-sharing bonuses have now been paid out under the program. Employees earlier received $3 million for the airline's financial performance from April through September last year and then pocketed $2.1 million for the carrier's fourth-quarter results.
Employees received a minimum of $100, before taxes, under the profit-sharing program they agreed to in early 2003 as part of more than $15 million in labor concessions. Under the agreement, 10 percent of the company's operating profits through June 2004 in excess of its quarterly targets are being paid out as quarterly bonuses.
Hawaiian had a record operating profit of $17.4 million in the first quarter of this year.
"When Hawaiian needed them, Hawaiian's employees were there," said Hawaiian trustee Joshua Gotbaum. "It's right that they should share in Hawaiian's success."
Company officers are not included in the bonus program.
Separately, Gotbaum and the company's unsecured creditors' committee jointly filed a motion yesterday seeking to push back the confirmation hearing for reorganizing the airline five weeks to Oct. 5, or later, from Aug. 31.
Last week, Gotbaum and the committee asked the court for a six-week extension for reorganization plans to be filed and for modifications of those plans to be made but didn't propose a date. Gotbaum and the committee want to provide potential investors with enough time to develop their best offers, and are seeking to promote a fair and level playing field.
Gotbaum and the committee said they received expressions of interest from 13 parties interested in joining them on a reorganization plan and have narrowed the field to at least five parties. Gotbaum and the committee said those parties will need more time to study the financial information. Multiple requests for management interviews is another reason for the extension, the filing said.
The new dates being sought for filing reorganization plans and modifying them are July 29 and Aug. 6, respectively. The trustee and committee are proposing a July 8 deadline for potential investors to submit binding proposals to participate in a joint plan. A hearing on several Hawaiian matters is set for 2 p.m. Friday, and the trustee and committee have requested a decision be made at that time on their extension proposal as well.
