Hawaiian Holdings Shares Jump 20 Percent « H E » MN1 Exclusive :: email posted Friday, 4 May 2007 Sherri Snyder MN1 Staff WriterShares of Hawaiian Holdings (AMEX: HA; NYSE: Arca) climbed nearly 20 percent, or 67 cents closing at $4.05 Friday afternoon, one day after releasing its 2007 first-quarter results.
Hawaiian Holdings, parent company to Hawaiian Airlines, reported first quarter operating revenue at $215.2 million, up 1.5 percent from the first quarter 2006.
Competition across the Pacific and Hawaiian islands paired with low travel demand to the state of Hawaii affected unit revenue.
“Nonetheless, we succeeded in controlling our costs with our unit costs excluding fuel declining by 5.5 percent in the quarter,” Hawaiian Holdings President and CEO Mark B. Dunkerley said in a press release.
The company reported unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $130.7 million from $114.5 million at year end 2006. Wages and benefit expenses were down to $58.0 million and maintenance and repair expenses were up $8.3 million to $25.1 million.
Hawaiian Airlines is the nation’s top-ranked airline, according to the 2007 Airline Quality Ratings (AQR); Hawaiian’s reputation for the most on-time flights for 2004 through 2006 tops all U.S. carriers and was reported to have the fewest misplaced bags for 2005 and 2006 by the U.S. Department of Transportation.