Aloha Airlines chalks
up another loss

A 37.6 percent jump in fuel costs helped
drag down the company's financial performance

Aloha Airlines, following the same flight line as its parent company, lost $6.4 million in the second quarter, for its third down period in a row.

The privately held company, which has now lost $13.6 million so far this year, had a net gain of $6.3 million in the second quarter of 2003 because of a one-time $14.5 million federal grant for government-imposed security expenses.

Revenues rose 7.1 percent last quarter to $101.6 million from $94.9 million.

The preliminary results, which were released yesterday by the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics, don't include financial information from parent company Aloha Airgroup Inc. or its former subsidiary, Island Air, which was sold in May to San Francisco-based Gavarnie Holding LLC.

Last week, Aloha Airgroup announced it lost $963,000 in the second quarter, compared with a loss of $6.9 million a year earlier.

Those results included the financial performances of Aloha Airlines and Island Air.

Glenn Zander, the president and chief executive of the company, who is stepping down Oct. 5 due to his wife's health problems, said last week that a 37.6 percent jump in fuel costs for Aloha Airgroup had dragged down the financial performance.

Operating expenses for just the airline last quarter rose 4.4 percent to $106.1 million from $101.6 million. The airline's operating loss in the second quarter narrowed to $4.9 million from $6.7 million.

Aloha Airlines, which had a $1.3 million profit in 2003 after four straight years of losses, began its recent string of quarterly losses with a $3.2 million decline in the fourth quarter of 2003. That followed a record $11.3 million gain in the third quarter of 2003.