Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HA) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Brent Overbeek: I think in terms of this year, Dan, it’s going to have a very limited impact. It’s really — it’s the — it’s a cost drag this year as we incur some expenses in spooling up for coming into service. And then we have a couple of airplanes entering service before the end of the year, but really for a partial fourth quarter impact. So, it will really be more of a 2024 story before we have something meaningful to talk about and we’re not — we have not yet put out some revenue or cost guidance related to that. That will be something we think about as we go through in the latter part of the year.

Shannon Okinaka: Dan, what I’ll add is we have included the operating cost of the fourth quarter of the Amazon work in our full year guidance. So, the — that cost piece is baked in. Obviously, we didn’t give revenue guidance for the full year, but the cost piece is baked in to our guidance.

Dan McKenzie: Okay. And then maybe just squeeze one more in here. I’m just wondering if you could unpack the revenue outlook for second quarter a little bit more? So, you guys always guide conservatively, but just setting that aside, we have the inter-island impact, the Japan impact. But I’m wondering to what extent if any there’s the tech slowdown might be having on leisure demand to Hawaii? I know it’s okay today, but I’m just wondering if it’s a — is this another shoe that could potentially drop that we have to worry about or am I just trying to split demand by too much here?

Peter Ingram: I would say maybe you’re trying to split it by too much, Dan. I think if we look across North America right now, we we’re above where we were in 2019 in term of advance bookings, we’re above where we were last year. We’ve had a pretty encouraging several weeks kind of leading in and I feel pretty good. Both in terms of where we’re at from an advanced booking perspective, for 2Q and 3Q as well. So, I’m not seeing any kind of macro signs of it. There are some geographies and the Bay Area is maybe a little more strain than others, but certainly I think we’ll see overall demand levels be quite strong, but nothing material jumps out in terms of what we’re looking at.

Dan McKenzie: Yes, very good. Okay, perfect. Thanks so much you guys.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Chris Stathoulopoulos with Susquehanna. Please proceed with your question.

Chris Stathoulopoulos: Good morning everyone. Thanks for taking the question. Shannon, I think on the last call, you said that 2Q through year end PRASM would be closer to FY 2022. And if we look at the guide here for 2Q, three points of headwind from spoilage, no pulse and service, doesn’t sound like you’re doing ground handling and there’s something else. So, a lot of moving pieces, the $39 fare wars tapering off. I just — could you give us some color on how we should think about the cadence of CASMex second half? But also just color on kind of core yields here because in the past you’ve always talked about this RASM premium off of the US West Coast and there’s a lot of moving pieces here. So, just would like to hear your view on what you see with respect to core yields or I guess perhaps the competitive landscape for fares? Thank you.

Shannon Okinaka: Hi Chris. I’ll start a little bit with the CASM side, and I’ll pass it over to Brent to talk about PRASM. But so for CASM, yes, we’re going to stay with our full year 1% to 5% range up. And the first half was a little on the lower side and the second half is a little on the higher side to get that average. And a lot of it just timing on the cost side of when our maintenance events are happening and a bunch — a number of our airports rate increases happen on July 1st or take effect on July 1st, which pushes up that second half CASM versus the first half. But we are going to keep that full year guide of 1% to 5% for CASM. So, I’ll have Brent maybe address some of the yield question.

Brent Overbeek: Yes. So, Chris, we’re not going to give a revenue guide. We haven’t historically kind of got it out for full year revenue this early in the year and we’re not going to do that. Some of the headwinds you mentioned structurally are there or abate as we get later in the year depending on those individual attributes, but some of them will be there in 3Q. and I think they’ll taper off a little bit as we get towards the end of the year. If we look at kind of overall what’s kind of going on in the marketplace. Like I mentioned, I think we feel pretty good about where we are on North America advanced book. Average fares look to be consistent with kind of 2019-ish levels in some cases up, some cases down, but overall in the same neighborhood.

And then international excluding Japan continues to book strong. We’re encouraged with that again really strong US point of sale demand there. And then with Japan, we’re continuing to see things rebound from a traffic as that comes back at slightly lower fares. But overall, we’re encouraged with the trajectory we’re seeing in Japan.

Chris Stathoulopoulos: Okay. Thank you for the color. My follow-up, Peter. So, with the $39 fare war seemingly over, curious to hear your postmortem view on this. What did you learn? And do you believe that Southwest products here is resonating with travelers? Thank you.

Peter Ingram: Well, I think what we’ve learned from the Southwest experience in the Neighbor Island market so far is that travelers in Hawaii prefer Hawaiian Airlines and that’s been reflected in consistently higher load factor, superior revenue generation. We’re focused on continuing to compete, whether it is $39 fares or other levels of fares going forward and we think we’re well-positioned to succeed for the various reasons we’ve noted over time.

Chris Stathoulopoulos: Okay. Thank you.

Peter Ingram: Thanks Chris.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I would like turn the floor back over to Peter Ingram, President and CEO for closing comments.

Peter Ingram: Hello, again to everyone for joining us today. Amidst the challenges facing our business, our team continues to deliver meaningful accomplishments, which positions us for a bright future. We appreciate your interest and look forward to updating you on our progress in the months ahead. Aloha.

Operator: This concludes today’s teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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