Hawaiian Air's Routes, Margins Grow but Flat Share Price Bugs CEO

HONOLULU -- (TheStreet) -- You wouldn't know it from the share price but 2012 has been a big year for Hawaiian (HA).

The carrier expanded capacity 25%, including the addition of a daily Honolulu-New York flight, opened a new hub in Maui, and increased its net income margin to 3.8% from 2.2%. A week ago, CEO Mark Dunkerley signed a three-year contract extension with the carrier and next Monday he will seek to lay out the case for the company's stock at an investor day in New York.

Additionally, Dunkerley made a brief appearance in September on the TV show "Hawaii Five-O," an indication of Hawaiian's importance to the state and its tourist economy.

The share price, which began the year at $5.91, closed Friday at $5.94.

"Clearly it's a source of some frustration," Durkerley said, in an interview. "The business has had a pretty good year, the company continues to execute its strategy, and margins are expanding. We've seen good demand across all of the segments of our business, and while fuel prices are up, we have recaptured that with increases in revenue."

Perhaps the biggest negative for Hawaiian this year has been the buildup of competitors' Hawaii flying, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area. Alaska (ALK) now operates 27 daily flights to four Hawaii airports from seven mainland cities. It competes with Hawaiian in Oakland, Calif., San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Seattle and Portland, Ore. Meanwhile, low-fare Allegiant (ALGT) serves Hawaii from smaller cities including California's Fresno, Stockton and Monterrey and Bellingham, Wash.

In an October report, following Hawaiian's third-quarter earnings release, Imperial Capital analyst Bob McAdoo wrote that Hawaiian faces "swelling capacity in a few Hawaiian markets, stifling revenue growth." McAdoo said industry capacity between Hawaii and North America is up 13% this year, including 25% growth in the Bay Area and 15% growth in Southern California. He also said that "competitors added capacity on two of Hawaiian's eight international routes." In both mainland and international markets, Hawaiian saw declines in revenue per available seat mile. In the third quarter, RASM fell 5.7% from the same period a year earlier.

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