Fast-growing Hawaiian Airlines, gearing up to begin service to Fukuoka, Japan, and New York City in the first half of this year, posted a 70.4 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings as rising fuel costs continued to eat into profits.

But despite the decline, which was exacerbated by nonrecurring items, President and CEO Mark Dunkerley says the state’s largest carrier has things under control.

"It was a pretty good quarter," Dunkerley said Tuesday. "The year as a whole for 2011, after you’ve made the adjustments for some of the one-off items, was roughly the same as 2010, which, when you consider that the price of fuel is some 35 percent higher, means that we’ve done a good job of controlling our costs and raising our fares to offset the effect of fuel."

Fourth-quarter net income was $20.9 million, or 40 cents a share, compared with $70.6 million, or $1.36 a share, a year ago, when the company had $56.9 million in nonrecurring tax benefits. There were no similar tax benefits in the most recent quarter.

Revenue jumped 26.2 percent to $434 million from $343.8 million.

Fuel costs rose 47.8 percent to $132.5 million from $89.7 million.

The company said adjusted net income was $16.3 million, or 31 cents a share, to beat analysts’ estimates of 28 cents. A year ago Hawaiian had adjusted net income of $11.3 million, or 21 cents a share.

Dunkerley said Hawaiian’s fuel-hedging program ensures that the airline has about 40 percent of its fuel requirements for the coming year hedged at any point in time. Fuel hedging is when an airline buys fuel at a certain price, hoping to lock in that price to hedge against future spikes in price.

Hawaiian, which began its recent expansion by launching three new routes over a nine-month period that began in November 2010, plans to debut its fourth new Asia route — to Fukuoka — on April 16. Hawaiian began flying to Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport in November 2010; Incheon International Airport, near Seoul, in January 2011; and Osaka, Japan, last July. The flight from Hono­lulu to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York will start June 4.

"In the short term when you expand quickly, you tend to incur costs before you see the revenues coming in, and that would be the case with us today," Dunkerley said. "But what’s important is we’re managing this business for the long term, and we believe for the health of this company, it’s important that we grow into the geography we’ve been expanding into."

John Reardon, managing director of institutional sales for New York-based Dominick & Dominick LLC, said Dunkerley has gradually changed Hawaiian’s image.

"This is a growth company," Reardon said. "Not that long ago Hawaiian was basically a Hawaiian asset story. They had the interisland business and the West Coast-to-the-islands business, and the stock rose and fell based on those particular markets. But now Hawaiian Airlines is a growth story, and you’re going to see them continue as they get the aircraft (a shift to Airbus A330-200s from Boeing 767-300ERs) to do that, and you’re going to see them continue to expand in North Asia."

Reardon said he was impressed that Hawaiian beat the consensus earnings estimate last quarter despite its maintenance costs jumping 67 percent to $47.4 million from $28.4 million in the year-earlier period.

"Hawaiian doesn’t take a maintenance holiday like some other airlines," Reardon said. "When they add aircraft they start charging for the projected maintenance they’re going to have, while some airlines will only take a maintenance charge when the cost is incurred. The way Hawaiian does it, it doesn’t get big maintenance spikes at the back life of the plane when there’s a much greater maintenance requirement."

For the year, Hawaiian lost $2.6 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with a profit of $110.3 million, or $2.10 a share, in 2010. The loss includes a pretax lease termination charge of $70 million taken in the second quarter of 2011 tied to the purchase of 15 Boeing 717-200 interisland aircraft that Hawaiian had been leasing. Adjusted earnings for 2011 were $43.2 million versus $45.5 million a year ago.

Annual revenue rose 26 percent to $1.7 billion from $1.3 billion while fuel costs increased 58.9 percent, to $513.3 million from $323 million.

Hawaiian’s stock closed up 14 cents to $6.96 Tuesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market to bring its gain for the year to 20 percent. The earnings were announced after the market closed.