Despite Momentum, Hawaiian Airlines Forecast Signals Slow Recovery
Hawaiian Airlines plans to restart flights to Australia in time for the holidays but still expects revenue to be considerably lower than before the pandemic.
In a sign of the challenge Hawaii tourism companies face recovering from the Covid-19 travel drought, Hawaiian Airlines said Tuesday it expects revenue to be down 32% to 37% during the last three months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2019.
The forecast, part of a , was worse than Wall Street had been expecting. And it came amidst some generally good news and upbeat comments from Hawaiian鈥檚 president and chief executive, Peter Ingram. The carrier resumed scheduled flights to Hawaii and American Samoa in September and plans to resume service to Sydney, Australia in December, in time for the holidays.
“While our third quarter results were affected by the resurgence of COVID-19 cases associated with the Delta variant, momentum had moved in a positive direction by the end of the quarter, and we remain absolutely confident in our long-term prospects as leisure travel recovers globally,” Ingram said in a press release.
Despite the delta variant, the company reported total revenue of $508.8 million during the third quarter. That was down 33% compared to the third quarter of 2019. Before Hawaiian鈥檚 announcement, the consensus on Wall Street was that Hawaiian鈥檚 recovery would accelerate and revenue would be only 17.5% lower for the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2019, .
