Hawaiian Airlines announced plans today to reduce staffing and increase liquidity after reporting significant second-quarter losses that continued the financial harms that emerged earlier this year from COVID-19 fears and containment policies.

During an investor earnings call today, executives from the carrier’s parent company, Hawaiian Holdings Inc., reported a second-quarter net loss of $106.9 million, or $2.33 a share. During last year’s second quarter, Hawaiian had a net income of more than $57.8 million or $1.21 cents a share.

The carrier’s adjusted second quarter net income, including CARES Act deductions and other changes, was a net loss of $174.7 million, or $3.81 cents a share. Revenue fell to just over $60 million, a nearly 92% drop from the $712 million plus that it realized in the second quarter of 2019.

Hawaiian reported a second-quarter daily cash burn of about $3.3 million.

“The second quarter was an incredibly challenging period for our company and for the entire industry as we continue to face the unprecedented demand destruction due to the COVID -19 pandemic,” Peter Ingram, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines said during the call. “In our home state of Hawaii, we had a 14-day quarantine in place for incoming travelers throughout the quarter leading us to operate a fraction of the schedule that we planned at the beginning of the year. The human toll of the virus was also driven home last week with the passing of one of our long time flight attendants.”

Hawaiian reported last week that Jeff Kurtzman, a Los Angeles-based Hawaiian flight attendant who had joined the company in 1986, died after testing positive for COVID-19. Kurtzmanwas part of an outbreak at a workplace training program, where 17 employees contracted the virus as of July 10.

New COVID-19 cleaning and social-distancing protocols have been adopted and will cut into profits and change how the carrier does business. Hawaiian has pledged through at least September to limit the capacity of available seats on all aircraft to no higher than 70% to allow for greater physical distancing.

The pandemic’s economic costs also have a human side. Hawaiian already has taken steps to reduce staffing levels through voluntary unpaid leave, voluntary exit packages and early retirement packages. It has instituted a hiring freeze, except for essential positions, and has reduced executive pay by 10% to 50%.

Brent Overbeek, Hawaiian’s senior vice president of network planning and revenue management, said during this morning’s conference call that Hawaiian has spent significant effort planning its emergence from the crisis.

“While we don’t know the pace of the return to demand for travel to Hawaii, we know that it will occur. But we also know that it will take years— not months to get back to pre-COVID-19 levels,” Ingram said. “With an uncertain demand recovery timeline, our primary planning scenario focuses on being a smaller airline by about 15% to 25% next summer compared to 2019 levels.”

Over the next days Hawaiian will be releasing Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices to employees at risk of being affected by an undisclosed number of involuntary furloughs, Ingram said.

Hawaiian’s reductions come despite federal aid. Through June 30 the company has received $214.2 million in grants and $49 million in loans from the CARES Act. It expects to receive an additional $29.2 million this month. 

The company also reported that it’s taking steps to increase liquidity and this month has entered into additional financial transactions. It’s raised $114 million through the sale and leaseback of two Airbus A321neo aircraft. It also signed a non-binding letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Treasury that potentially allow it to receive up to $364 million in Economic Relief Program “ERP” loans offered under the CARES Act. Hawaiian has until March 2021 to decide how much of the available ERP funds to borrow.