Hawaiian Air Q3 Profit Drops 27 Percent

Hawaiian Airlines reported a 27 percent drop in third quarter net profit as fuel and staff costs jumped.

Net profit for the quarter to end September came in at USD$74.6 million, down from the previous year quarter’s $102.4 million, as fuel costs rose 16.1 percent to $110.1 million and staff costs by 18.1 percent to $161.1 million.

The third quarter operating income of $173.8 million was down 2.9 percent from 3Q17’s $178.9 million, despite an increase in passenger revenue of 7.3 percent to $634.5 million.

Hawaiian flew three million passengers during the quarter, up 2.9 percent, with scheduled RPM passenger traffic up 3.0 percent. ASM capacity increased by just 1.2 percent leading to an improvement in load factor to 86.7 percent, up 1.5 percentage points.

Operating revenue per ASM (RASM) rose 5.8 percent to 14.53 cents, but CASM (cost per ASM) increased by 9.4 percent to 11.02 cents.

Looking forward, Hawaiian sees its fourth quarter operating revenue per ASM to be in the range of down 1.0 percent to up 2.0 percent. Cost per ASM excluding fuel is expected to increase by between 3.5 and 6.5 percent.

For the full year, the airline forecasts RASM to increase by 5.0-6.0 percent, and CASM excluding fuel to increase in the 6.0 to 7.0 percent range.