Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

So, no immediate plans to go and make a filing there, but it is still something that we have the ability to go back and take another look at again.

Helane Becker: That’s great, thanks. All hugely helpful as usual. Thanks, Peter.

Peter Ingram: All right. Thanks, Helane.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Catherine O’Brien with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.

Catherine O’Brien: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Good to be back this quarter. So I just wanted to circle back on the first quarter revenue outlook if you allow me. A quick clarification, first Brent. Was your comment that 1Q passenger revenue will be up 15% but trend toward flat, was that on your total system or is that just North America to Hawaii routes?

Peter Ingram: That was system PRASM.

Catherine O’Brien: Okay, got it. And then looking back historically, load factor is usually pretty flattish between fourth quarter and first quarter. So if we assume the same for this year, maybe that’s wrong, maybe that’s right. But that means yields are down year-over-year versus last year with that pretty material Omicron impact, is that just like more competitive at or is there a stage linked impact we should be thinking about given the international add-back.

Peter Ingram: Yeah. I mean, there is a really big 1Q year-over-year change on the international side. Our international capacity is up, I believe, almost 70% in terms of 1Q. So, it’s a really difficult kind of transitioned from a comp perspective, Cathy, and I think that — a lot of that will smooth out as we get into 2Q and beyond.

Catherine O’Brien: It makes lot of sense. And then, Peter, I know it wasn’t very firm guidance but last quarter you spoke to low-single and mid-single digit growth on a full-year basis versus 2019, just like in the Q&A. So understandably not super firm. But your guidance today points to very slightly down, maybe up 2% if I’m doing that math right. Can you just walk us through the underlying change versus your prior expectations? Is that just all Japan offset by the new flight or is there a pull out anywhere else in the network, maybe given some of the competitive situation. Thanks so much for the time.

Peter Ingram: Yes, so a lot of that is certainly driven by Japan, slowing the pace of our return to service their. I think in an ideal situation — ideal circumstance if we were flying Japan less intensely we might have been a little bit more aggressive than we are planning right now in terms of redeploying capacity to other more productive markets and to a certain extent, that’s a function of the aircraft availability that I alluded to with our 321s not being as available as we would like and having a little bit of uncertainty there. If that uncertainty can be alleviated, that would give us an opportunity to make a couple of adds at least seasonally elsewhere in the network. And then, of course, if we saw a rapid change in Japan we’d love to come back there a little more quickly. But that’s most of what has changed since we talked about the numbers three months ago.

Catherine O’Brien: Very helpful. Thank you.

Peter Ingram: Sure. Welcome back.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Hillary Cacanando with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.