Hawaiian Holdings, parent of Hawaiian Airlines, reports losing $12.3m during the second quarter of 2023 – compared with a $47.4m loss during the same three months last year – as the company looks to capitalise on rebounding air travel between Hawaii and Japan. During its 25 July earnings call, Hawaiian cites a long-awaited resurgence in demand from Japan in its “favourable” forecast for the remainder of 2023. “Since early May, Japan outbound demand has accelerated meaningfully for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. Combined with historically high demand from US point of sale, the result has been load factors… that are comparable to historical levels,” says CE Peter Ingram. “It is great to see Japanese visitors start to return to Hawaii in numbers.” The Honolulu-based carrier’s second-quarter revenue rose 2.2% compared with the same period of 2022, to $707m from $692m. In a trend recently observed by several other airlines, Hawaiian’s cost of aircraft fuel decreased 26% in the second quarter, while total expenses were roughly even with last year’s. Hawaiian flew 2.8m passengers during the three months ending 30 June, up 8.7% year on year. The carrier notes that it has improved its operational performance following the completion of a major construction project at its base at Honolulu International airport that had “severely affected our operations and on-time performance”, Ingram says. Hawaiian also disclosed that delivery of the first of 12 787-9s it is expecting from Boeing has been delayed by about two months, pushing the widebody jet’s expected arrival to the first quarter of 2024. ”We didn’t actually expect to have the 787 in operation before early 2024 anyway, so… no changes to our 2023 plans,” Ingram says. <br/>
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Shares in Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris fell more than 5% on Tuesday in early trading, a day after the publication of its Q2 results. The company posted a $5.5m net profit in Q2, reversing losses from the year earlier period, while revenues rose 13%. <br/>
India's aviation regulator has taken SpiceJet off enhanced surveillance, CNBC-TV18 reported on Tuesday, citing sources. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) inspected a total of 23 aircraft and made 95 observations as part of the procedure. It also conducted 51 spot checks of SpiceJet's aircraft across 11 locations in India. The findings were routine in nature and were not considered significant by the aviation watchdog, the sources said, adding that the airline undertook the required maintenance action to address the DGCA's findings. The DGCA had put SpiceJet under enhanced surveillance earlier this month as the airline scrambles to resolve its financial issues. However, SpiceJet denied any such developments at the time. The regulatory decision came at a time when SpiceJet was in the process of settling dues with various lessors seeking repossession of its aircraft. The airline did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment on the regulator's latest move.<br/>