Hawaiian Air’s passenger count rose 7.2 percent in January

Rapidly expanding Hawaiian Airlines carried more passengers in January than a year ago as it offered more flights.

Hawaiian said Wednesday that its passenger count rose 7.2 percent to 792,009 from 738,981 in January 2012.

Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, jumped 24.6 percent to 1.3 million from 1.1 million. Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, increased 20.3 percent to 1.1 million from 891,466.

Hawaiian’s load factor, or the percentage of seating capacity, shrunk 2.9 percentage points to 80.5 percent from 83.4 percent.

The airline plans to launch service to Auckland, New Zealand, next month and to Taipei in July.