Hawaiian Holdings’ (NASDAQ:HA) wholly owned subsidiary Hawaiian Airlines reported impressive traffic figures for September. Revenue Passenger Miles (RPMs), a measure of traffic, increased 6.3% to 1.37 billion in September on a year-over-year basis.
Notably, Hawaiian Airlines has witnessed a 5.5% improvement in RPMs to 12.2 billion on a year-to-date basis. Also, ASMs were up 2.9% to 14.21 billion. Load factor expanded 210 bps to 85.8% as well. Additionally, passenger count rose 3.3% to 8.61 billion in the first nine months of 2017.
Hawaiian Holdings, which will release its third-quarter 2017 results on Oct 19, increased its guidance for gallons of jet fuel consumed and economic fuel cost per gallon. The carrier, based in Honolulu County, HI, expects gallons of jet fuel consumed to increase year over year between 3% and 4% (previous guidance had called for an increase between 3% and 5%).
Rising fuel costs have caused the carrier to project economic fuel cost per gallon between $1.65 and $1.75 (previous guidance had estimated the metric between $1.55 and $1.65). We expect rising costs (fuel and labor) to hurt the bottom line in the third quarter.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Hawaiian Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in airline space are Deutsche Lufthansa (DE:LHAG) AG (OTC:DLAKY) , GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. (NYSE:GOL) and SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) . While Deutsche Lufthansa sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), GOL Linhas and SkyWest hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Shares of Deutsche Lufthansa and GOL Linhas have surged more than 74% and 60%, respectively, in the last six months, whereas SkyWest shares have rallied in excess of 45% over the same time frame.
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Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. (GOL): Free Stock Analysis Report
Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (HA): Free Stock Analysis Report
SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW): Free Stock Analysis Report
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLAKY): Free Stock Analysis Report
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