Hawaiian Airlines reports drop in passengers but rise in efficiency
Hawaiian Airlines reported today that passenger traffic was down in June; however, the carrier reported an increased load factor — the measure of how efficiently it fills seats on planes.
The state’s largest carrier transported 1,004,487 passengers — a 3.9-percentage-point drop compared with 1,045,740 passengers in June 2018. However, Hawaiian’s load factor — the share of seats filled — increased by 1.2 percentage points to 89%.
Revenue passenger miles — or one paying passenger transported one mile — increased by nearly 2% to more than 1.5 billion. Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, was flat at just over 1.7 billion.
For the year, Hawaiian’s passenger traffic has fallen more than 2% to nearly 5.8 million. However, the airline’s revenue passenger miles rose more than 3% to more than 8.6 billion and its available seat miles increased nearly 3% to just over 10 billion. Its load factor increased three-tenths of a percentage point to 86.1% from 85.8%.
Hawaiian, which made its traffic and expansion announcement as the market closed, saw its shares rise 12 cents to $28.12 during the regular trading session.