I'm thinking, in this case (if the rumor is even true), HA could be in serious trouble. Aloha went belly up because of a largely unknown, two-bit (to put it nicely) mainland regional offering cheap seats and no feed or code-share. If a recognized brand (I.e. in United/Continental paint) shows up with cheap fares, locals will flock to the deals. UniCal can afford to operate inter-island at a loss, especially by feeding mainline flights.
Don't get me wrong, I'm an HA fan but I don't think the wide-body operation can support a bleeding inter-island operation if there was a serious competitor in the market.
No worries, but inter-island is a pretty small slice of the operation.
We are in our own little world out here so a lot of misconceptions about Hawaiian exist. Here are some actual facts.
1) Hawaiian has the highest operating profit margin in the industry.
2)Air Transport World had a list of the financially fittest airlines in the world based on 10 different parameters. They ranged from operating profit, balance sheet, relative strength in the markets they served, fuel hedging, suitability of the aircraft they operated etc. Hawaiian was number 1 in the U.S and number 13 in the world.
3) Right now Hawaiian is very well run, outstanding marketing and very strong operationally. We used to at most have anywhere from 20 to 40 million cash and always struggle to get by. Now Hawaiian has 300 million and that's after making constant investments in the operation. We have gone from being a shoe string operation to having all the latest and greatest technological investments made in the airline. They are doing a lot of positive things right now and are not afraid to invest in the well being of the airline.
4) Our Trans Pac flying is more profitable than inter-island. The Asia flying is particularly profitable, strong loads, high yield and very favorable exchange rates
5) We have a better product and lower seat mile costs than any of our competitors to the mainland,
I could go on and on, but the bottom line is, Hawaiian can easily stand a little competition inter-island. Although there is no counter or gate space available to set an operation the size of AQ any more. Inter-island is basically big enough for 1 and 1/2 airlines. Hawaiian survived when they competed with a stronger better run AQ (we were the weak one of the 2 in the 90's). They now have very strong management, a very strong balance sheet, and we just used our own money to refinance the 717's. They are very well suited for inter-island and a weak competitor locally would have a harder time establishing itself than Hawaiian would have surviving a fare war. Obviously we don't want it, but an interisland fare war would hardly kill the airline.
BTW, Go didn't put AQ out of business, they were headed that way for lot's of other reasons, Go was just the straw that broke the camels back. Absolutely no relation between the fitness of HA now vs. AQ when Go came on the scene
