Hawaiian Airlines gives $31M to staff

Hawaiian Airlines said Thursday it would award $31 million in profit- sharing and performance bonuses to employees following what was an “exceptional” 2018.

Hawaiian Airlines carried an all-time high of 11.84 million passengers in 2018 amid a fleet expansion. Hawaiian’s passenger traffic last year rose 2.9 percent from 11.5 million in 2017 as the airline took delivery of nine A321neo aircraft in 2018 to bring the size of its A321neo fleet to 11 aircraft.

The payout, which went to 7,100 employees, represents more than 11 percent of Hawaiian’s adjusted net income of $274.8 million last year.

Peter Ingram, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, said the carrier is headed into the second quarter of 2019 with 7,271 employees “whose passion and work ethic” have positioned the company to “grow stronger in 2019 and beyond.”

Hawaiian, which made the announcement after the market closed, saw its shares fall 0.32 cents to $25.88 during the regular trading session. Hawaiian’s stock has fallen from a recent high of $44.25 in August.

Hawaiian’s latest announcements come as the carrier readies for additional challenges in 2019. Its competitor Southwest Airlines has made Hawaii the focus of its year, and there’s still competition from Alaska Airlines, which entered Hawaii’s trans-Pacific market in 2007.

Those carriers also were rewarding employees. In January, Alaska Air Group companies Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air announced that they were providing employees with $136 million in combined monthly, annual and one-time bonuses. Alaska has about 22,000 employees.

Southwest announced in February that it would share $544 million with employees through its profit-sharing plan. Southwest’s payout, based on 2018 performance, was the third highest in the company’s history. Southwest, which has more than 58,000 employees, starts service to Hawaii on March 17.

Also Thursday, Hawaiian Airlines reported its passenger traffic fell 3.3 percent in February.

The state’s largest carrier transported 870,538 passengers, compared with 900,109 in February 2018. The percentage of seats it filled dropped by 0.3 percentage point to 84.5 percent from 84.8 percent.

Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported 1 mile, increased 2.3 percent to almost 1.23 million. Available seat miles, or one seat transported 1 mile, rose 2.8 percent to nearly 1.49 million.

So far this year passenger traffic has fallen 2.3 percent to about 1.8 million. The airline’s revenue passenger miles rose 3.6 percent to nearly 2.6 million, and its available seat miles increased 3.7 percent to nearly 3.19 million. The percentage of seats it filled slipped 0.1 percentage points to 84.4 from 84.5 percent.