Hawaiian Airlines is enjoying the best of both worlds right now.

Oil prices have been plunging and baggage fee revenue and other ancillary income have been increasing.

It’s an early Christmas gift for the state’s largest carrier, which for several years had to endure sky-high oil prices that made it tough to earn a profit.

Hawaiian collected more revenue from baggage fees in the July-September period than any other quarter in the company’s history, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The airline brought in $20.9 million in baggage fees in the third quarter to boost its nine-month total to $57.2 million. Last quarter’s baggage fees represented a 9.3 percent increase from $19.1 million in the year-earlier quarter. Hawaiian is now well on its way to eclipsing the company-record $70 million in baggage fees it took in during 2013.

And the airline also is benefiting from lower oil prices, which have cut its fuel expenses. The price of oil closed at $55.91 a barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s down from a summer high of $107 and lower than at any time since spring 2009, when the U.S. was in a recession. Hawaiian President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Dunkerley has said the airline either gains or loses $2.4 million for every penny that the price of fuel moves.

"We believe that 2015 will be a good year, assuming the current market conditions remain the same, thanks to strong demand in each of our geographies, the maturing of our developing routes, growth in our ancillary revenue, attractive fuel prices, the reduction of debt and dedicated cost control," Hawaiian spokeswoman Alison Croyle said.

Hawaiian’s fees for checked bags have remained the same at $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for a second checked bag for mainland and interisland flights — with HawaiianMiles members paying $15 and $20, respectively, for interisland flights. What has been producing additional baggage revenue has been the increase in passengers.

"The biggest driver of this is the volume of passengers in 2014," Croyle said. "Our growth in overall capacity to North America, which represents the largest share of our overall baggage revenue, is up 7.4 percent year-to-date versus 2013."

Colorado-based analyst Mike Boyd said Hawaiian is justified in charging baggage fees to customers even though the price of oil has dropped. In 2008, American Airlines was the first U.S. carrier to begin charging for checked backs because of the escalating price of oil.

"Hawaiian is in very good shape," Boyd said. "Ten years ago, $60 a barrel was obscenely high. Just because the price of oil has dropped from exorbitantly high to just high, it doesn’t mean that Hawaiian should give money back to the customers. If customers are willing to pay for a checked bag, the airline would be nuts not to charge it."

Boyd admits customers have little choice in paying for checked bags unless they put all their belongings in a carry-on or don’t fly at all.

"Customers are over a barrel and today when airlines are selling 85 percent of their seats, that’s the way it is. They’re like any other businesses. It’s like if you go to the gas station and don’t want to pay it if it’s $4 a gallon, you’ve got to pay it."

Hawaiian also received $5.5 million from reservation cancellation and change fees last quarter. That was up 19.1 percent from $4.6 million in the year-ago period.

The airline also has been benefiting from other ancillary fees as well.

Dunkerley said in October during its third-quarter earnings conference call that the airline hit the $1 million a month mark for preferred seat sales in March and hit the $2 million a month threshold for its Extra Comfort seating in August and September that provides passengers with 5 or more inches of extra legroom.

"This (Extra Comfort) result exceeds our previous expectations, and provides a meaningful tailwind to revenue performance going forward," Dunkerley said.

Added Croyle: "We’ve seen revenue grow with the availability of more Extra Comfort seats on each of our A330 aircraft since the full rollout of the product in August."

Local commuter Island Air took in $1.1 million in baggage fees, up 24.3 percent from $874,000 in the year-ago quarter. Island Air’s reservation cancellation and changes fees grew 53.3 percent to $164,000 from $107,000.

Overall, the 15 reporting U.S. airlines made $959.8 million from baggage fees in the third quarter of 2014, up 9 percent from $880.8 million in the year-earlier quarter. They also collected $758.6 million in fees for reservation cancellations and flight changes last quarter, up 3.2 percent from $734.9 million in the third quarter of 2013.