The economy may be slowing, but Hawaiian Airlines says it’s full speed ahead.

Hawaiian Holdings Inc., parent of the state’s largest carrier, returned to profitability last quarter as it earned $25.6 million and said Tuesday that second-half bookings are considerably stronger than the first half of the year.

The third-quarter profit came after a dismal second quarter when the airline lost $50 million to end a three-year string of quarterly profits.

President and CEO Mark Dunkerley, who was in China Tuesday networking for future routes, said rebounding Japan traffic and easing fuel prices helped Hawaiian bounce back.

"The third quarter marked a return to some better results for our business," Dunkerley said. "Strong demand in each of the major geographies we serve, continued cost control and some small but welcome easing of fuel prices all played a part."

While third-quarter results were an improvement over the second quarter, they were down from last year’s third quarter.

Hawaiian’s net income fell 15.9 percent from the third quarter of 2010 when it earned $30.5 million, or 59 cents a share. Earnings per share last quarter were 50 cents.

The company’s adjusted net income last quarter was $30 million, or 59 cents a share. That beat analysts’ consensus estimate of 48 cents a share.

Revenue rose 29.5 percent to $455.9 million from $352 million a year ago.

Dunkerley said he was encouraged that traffic has improved on the newly started service to Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport and the Kansai International Airport near Osaka.

"Our results on these routes would qualify as good in any year, let alone the year in which an earthquake and tsunami took such a large human and economic toll," Dunkerley said.

He said advance bookings systemwide continue to be steady.

"We are not seeing any backing off in terms of the rate of bookings for our services going forward," he said during a conference call.

Hawaiian previously announced new service to Fukuoka, Japan, that will begin in April, and Dunkerley said the airline will disclose either additional routes or expanded frequency in the next few months to coincide with four Airbus A330-200s that Hawaiian will receive in the first half of next year.

He said it’s still probably too early to include China in the airline’s 2012 expansion plans even though he’s making contacts in that country now.

"We’re here trying to build some long-term relationships to one day allow us to fly to China directly from Hawaii," he said.

"It would be hard to underestimate the importance of getting improvements to the issuance of visas to Chinese nationals wanting to come to Hawaii on vacation. There needs to be improvements, partly to make it easier for Chinese nationals to get visas to visit the United States, and partly in policy changes to make a visit to the United States competitive with a visit to other tourism destinations for Chinese citizens."

Hawaiian’s fuel costs jumped 61.1 percent last quarter to $136 million from $84.4 million in the year-earlier period but were in line with the $135.5 million in fuel costs in the second quarter of this year. Hawaiian’s average cost per gallon of jet fuel last quarter increased 40.9 percent to $3.17, including taxes and delivery, from the year-earlier quarter.

"To have that kind of (earnings) number when fuel was up 40 percent, that’s great," said analyst Bob McAdoo of Prairie Village, Kan.-based Avondale Partners LLC.

Hawaiian’s stock rose 25 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $4.92 on the Nasdaq Stock Market in the regular trading session before the earnings were announced.

Shares jumped an additional 57 cents, or 11.6 percent, to $5.49 in after-hours trading.