Hawaiian struggles with managing through coronavirus crisis

Hawaiian Airlines is struggling with a dramatic decline in business due to the global COVID-19 spread. The crisis has become so critical for airlines that the Honolulu-based carrier decided to cancel its planned investor day, scheduled for 9 March. Instead, CE Peter Ingram gave industry analysts an update on the airline’s anticipated decline in business as the global crisis continues to unfold. “The spread of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 is now an international health emergency,” Ingram says. “This is very different from a weak economic situation where people want to travel but don’t have the means to travel. This is driven by the level of anxiety that has built around travel and anxiety in general of spread of disease. We are dealing with a crisis in consumer confidence around travel and the uncertainty that is being created from all this.” Earlier in the day the airline withdrew its revenue per available seat mile (RASM) expectations for Q1. The previous guidance had been for a decline of 4.5-7.5%. “The company is unable to provide an updated guidance range due to considerable uncertainty about the impact of COVID-19 on demand for the remainder of the quarter,” Hawaiian said.<br/>