Hawaiian Airlines, dinged by $511 million loss in 2020, pivots for recovery

Hawaiian Airlines is recalling as many as 300 employees and preparing to serve new mainland cities as it works to recover from a more than $500 million loss last year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Hawaii’s largest airline said it expects to restore flight capacity this summer to between 75% and 85% of what it was in 2019 before COVID-19, in part by adding new service to three mainland “gateway” cities.

The recovery steps were discussed on a conference call with stock analysts Tuesday after Hawaiian, which operates under publicly traded holding company Hawaiian Holdings Inc., released a financial report showing a “devastating” impact from COVID-19 last year.

Hawaiian reported a $163 million loss in the last three months of 2020, compared with a $50 million profit in the same period the year before.

The fourth-quarter loss followed losses of $97 million in the third quarter, $107 million in the second quarter and $144 million in the first quarter that added up to a $511 million loss for all of last year.

Last year’s loss compared with a $244 million profit in 2019.

Peter Ingram, Hawaiian’s president and CEO, described 2020 as the most challenging year for the air travel industry but also said clearer skies appear ahead with expanding pre-travel testing and COVID-19 vaccine use.

“We are pleased to have turned the page on a challenging and unusual 2020, and are looking forward to better days in 2021,” he said on the call. “We’re optimistic about the year ahead but realistic that recovery will not be a straight line.”

The fourth quarter included the start of a pre-travel coronavirus testing program for travelers to Hawaii on Oct. 15 that prompted more business for Hawaiian, which has been offering the service to passengers through an expanding number of partners.

Hawaiian reported carrying about 485,000 paying passengers in the fourth quarter, down from about 2.9 million in the year-earlier quarter but up from 331,000 in the second quarter and 182,000 in the first quarter.

Brent Overbeek, Hawaiian’s senior vice president of revenue management and network planning, said the pickup in traffic during the fourth quarter included a slowdown in December as coronavirus infections grew on the mainland.

Interisland travel, meanwhile, hasn’t benefited much because test costs are high relative to ticket prices.

During the fourth quarter, Hawaiian restored service to all of its pre- pandemic origin points on the mainland, as well as nonstop service from Honolulu to Tokyo-Haneda and Osaka, Japan; and Seoul.

Reinstating nonstop service from Honolulu to Las Vegas, New York, Boston, Phoenix and the California cities San Jose and Oakland were among service changes that doubled Hawaiian’s capacity from third-quarter service levels. Still, fourth-quarter capacity was 72% lower than the same quarter in 2019.

Three new routes — nonstop flights from Honolulu to Austin, Texas; Orlando, Fla.; and Ontario, Calif. — as well as a new flight from Long Beach, Calif., to Maui are slated to begin in March and April.

“In an environment where we expect it will take some time for demand to fully return in our traditional markets, these routes provide an opportunity to broaden our network to cities that have been on our radar for some time, with proven demand and the lack of nonstop service today,” Ingram said.

With increasing COVID-19 vaccinations and planned flight additions, Ingram said, Hawaiian’s total capacity this summer should return to between 75% and 85% of what it was in 2019, including 85% to 100% for North America.

“We are encouraged to see vaccines in distribution, and look forward to that being a catalyst to move our industry and the broader economy beyond this incredibly difficult chapter,” he said. “In our view, pre-travel testing is step one, but vaccination holds the true key to restoring demand closer to historical levels.”

To give Hawaiian financial room to maneuver, the airline is raising cash by issuing debt and selling stock.

The company announced Tuesday that it intends to raise $800 million in a debt offering secured by company assets.

This debt would be used in part to pay off federal loans received under the CARES Act.

Hawaiian also said it sold about 2.1 million shares of stock in the fourth quarter for $19.79 on average to raise $41 million. The company may sell up to 5 million shares.

The airline also took advantage of federal aid for employees. Hawaiian cut about 2,400 workers Oct. 1 after an initial Payroll Support Program for airlines ended. The reduction represented 32% of Hawaiian’s workforce and included about 2,100 voluntary separations.

The federal program was extended in December, and Hawaiian said it accordingly sent recall notices to all employees involuntarily furloughed between Oct. 1 and Jan. 15.

Shares of Hawaiian stock closed at $20.24 Tuesday before release of the earnings report. That was up 2 cents from Monday and compares with 52-week high and low points of roughly $30 in February and $9 in March.