Hawaiian Holdings (HA) Arm Posts Solid November Traffic
Hawaiian Holdings’ HA wholly owned subsidiary, Hawaiian Airlines, reported traffic figures for November. The metric (measured in Revenue Passenger Miles or RPMs) increased 6.3% to around 1.33 billion in November.
Available Seat Miles (ASMs) also climbed 6.2% to 1.55 billion in the month. Load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) inched up 10 basis points (bps) to 85.9% in November as traffic growth outweighed capacity expansion.
On a year-to-date basis, Hawaiian Airlines witnessed a 5.5% rise in RPMs to 14.93 billion. Also, ASMs rose 3.4% to 17.36 billion. As a result, the load factor increased 170 bps to 86%. Additionally, passenger count in the first 11 months of 2017 rose 3.8% to 10.50 billion.
Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. Price
Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. Price | Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. Quote
Revised Q4 & Full-Year Guidance
The company has raised its fourth-quarter and full-year expectations for operating revenues per ASM (RASM) owing to impressive close-in bookings and increased cargo revenues compared with the figures of same period last year and 2016.
The carrier now expects fourth-quarter RASM to improve between 1.5% and 3.5%, up from the previous view of down 1% to up 2%. For 2017, it anticipates the metric to rise 5.5-6.5% year over year. Prior guidance had called for growth of 5-6% in the metric.
The company has also increased forecast for fourth-quarter economic fuel cost per gallon. The airline predicts the metric to rise in the range of $1.80-$1.90. Previous view was in the $1.75-$1.85 band.
Further, the company said at its investor day presentation that it expects 2018 ASMs to grow in the range of 5-8%.
New Share Repurchase Program
The company has also announced a new share repurchase program worth $100 million through Dec 31, 2019. This is an add-on to the existing $100 million authorization. The company has repurchased $90.5 million or 2.27 million shares so far this year under the existing stock repurchase authorization.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Hawaiian Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the airline space are Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. GOL, International Consolidated Airlines Group SA ICAGY and Deutsche Lufthansa AG DLAKY. While Gol Linhas and International Consolidated Airlines sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Deutsche Lufthansa carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Shares of Gol Linhas, International Consolidated Airlines and Deutsche Lufthansa have surged more than 200%, 58% and 100%, respectively, in a year.
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