Island Air remains upbeat about its future despite growing pains under its new ownership group.

The state’s second-largest carrier, whose majority interest was acquired by Honolulu venture capitalist Jeffrey Au and other investors in early February, lost $5.1 million in the second quarter, its first full quarter under the new owners, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. It was the 13th straight quarterly loss for the airline and a $780,000 wider loss than the first quarter, when the new owners were in a period of transition.

“This was in part a result of increased operational expenses which had to be absorbed due to not transitioning to new aircraft as had been planned in the original business model, as well as costs associated with the launch of service to Kona,” Island Air President and CEO David Uchiyama said via email. “However, compared to the second quarter of 2015, losses were actually down 13.2 percent, a significant improvement from the situation we were facing one year ago.”

Uchiyama, who was named to the top position in April, said he’s optimistic that Island Air is heading in the right direction.

“We are very encouraged by our team’s overall performance in the second quarter of 2016 and believe we are strongly positioned to continue to move forward with our long-term plans for growth and expansion, while remaining focused on providing reliable, alternative options for interisland air travel,” he said.

During the second quarter, Island Air flew a full schedule to Lihue for all three months, and began its Kona service during the last two weeks of the quarter.

“We will continue to build these and other markets we serve based on the input and demand from our customers and travel partners,” Uchiyama said.

Island Air, which had seen its revenue shrink amid cost-cutting under its previous owner, billionaire Larry Ellison, boosted its revenue 31.5 percent to $7.9 million in the second quarter from $6 million in the first quarter, and by 4.6 percent from $7.6 million in the second quarter of 2015.

“This is very promising since the second quarter is historically a shoulder period for the travel industry,” Uchiyama said.

Still, Uchiyama said he expected Island Air’s revenue to have been higher during the April-June period.

“We are moving forward with our discussion on aircraft,” Uchiyama said. “Unfortunately this process has taken longer than we had projected, which has impacted our revenue. We are confident that once we finalize our aircraft agreement it will have an impact on our revenue opportunity.”

Island Air’s operating expenses rose 26 percent last quarter to $12.9 million from $10.2 million in the first quarter but were down 3.7 percent from $13.4 million in the second quarter of 2015.

“The second quarter represents the first full quarter under our new owners, and our current management team stepped up to lead the airline for the majority of this period.” Uchiyama said. “In addition, we recently expanded our leadership team to include a new senior vice president of operations, and vice presidents of administration, safety and security, and information technology. And we are actively looking to fill a number of positions throughout the company, which will help us continue to grow and improve our overall operations and efficiencies.”