Hawaiian Airlines expects higher unit revenue in the second quarter compared with the prior-year period, due to lower fuel prices and slightly fuller planes, the company said Wednesday.
In April, the airline said it expected its second-quarter unit revenue--the amount taken in for each passenger flown a mile, a key metric--to increase by 2% to 5%. Hawaiian updated that guidance Wednesday, estimating that unit revenue would increase by 4% to 6%. It also increased its estimate for the percentage of seats filled in the June 30 quarter.
The Honolulu-based carrier, a subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings Inc. (HA) , recently implemented an aggressive expansion into Asian destinations, including flights to Tokyo and three other Japanese cities, with plans to add more in the future.
"There's been a lot of capacity pulled out of the Asian market in the past couple of years," said Hunter Keay, analyst with Wolfe Trahan & Co. "It's a little surprising since the yen is weak against the dollar. But the results are a validation that their diversification strategy is paying off."
Hawaiian had a strong first quarter that saw income jump 749% from $855,000, or 2 cents a share, to $7.26 million, or 14 cents a share, over the same period the year before. Revenue was up 19% from $325,281 to $390,926.
"We're seeing greater demand than we expected a couple of months ago across all operations," said Keoni Wagner, a spokesman for the airline. In Wednesday's investor guidance, the company said it continues to expect that its capacity will grow by 15.5% to 17.5% in the current quarter.
Last month, Hawaiian began code sharing with JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU), allowing smoother transfers for fliers at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and Los Angeles International Airport. Hawaiian also inaugurated on June 5 its own daily flight to New York, its first U.S. East Coast destination.
Hawaiian Holdings (HA) climbed Wednesday to close up 2.5% at $6.48.
Write to Ben Kesling at benjamin.kesling@dowjones.com
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