Hawaiian Airlines loses $9.3m in Q3 as ‘international network is still rebuilding’

Hawaiian Holdings, parent company of Hawaiian Airlines, reported a Q3 loss of $9.3m as the carrier continues its pandemic recovery. By comparison, the airline posted a $14.7m profit during the same period of 2021. However, excluding US government aid, it lost $48.7m that quarter. “The company’s overall operating revenue was down 1.9% from third quarter 2019 as its international network is still rebuilding,” Hawaiian says. Hawaiian reports Q3 operating revenue of $7.4b, a 46% increase from $4.5b during the three months ending 30 September 2021, the airline says 25 October. “Demand for travel to, from and within Hawaii remained strong,” Peter Ingram, Hawaiian’s president and CE, said during a 25 October conference call. “Leisure travel has led the global recovery, and I expect this to continue.” During Q3, the airline operated at 93% of Q3 2019 passenger capacity. Last year, Hawaiian operated at 79% of its 2019 capacity. Demand for flights between Hawaiian and the mainland USA has been “fully recovered for some time, and the peak summer period did not disappoint at all”, Ingram says. The airline anticipates a recovery in Hawaii-Japan travel, with Japan lifting most of its Covid-related travel restrictions on 11 October. “Mindful of the cautious nature of the Japanese public and the continuing weakness of the Japanese yen relative to the US dollar, we are choosing to add capacity back gradually,” Ingram says. Hawaiian is also feeling competitive pressure from Southwest Airlines, which started offering inter-island service in Hawaii in April 2019. Southwest has recently “initiated unusually aggressive pricing”, Ingram says. “I’m going to be asked to speculate on how the current situation evolves in the months ahead,” he adds. “The simple answer is that I do not know. But I do know is that the appropriate response to this challenge is to compete. So we will lean in.”<br/>