Hawaiian Holdings Arm Unveils Robust September Traffic Data

Hawaiian Holdings’ HA wholly owned subsidiary Hawaiian Airlines reported impressive traffic figures for September. Revenue Passenger Miles (RPMs), a measure of traffic, increased 6.3% to 1.37 billion in September on a year-over-year basis.

Notably, Hawaiian Airlines has witnessed a 5.5% improvement in RPMs to 12.2 billion on a year-to-date basis. Also, ASMs were up 2.9% to 14.21 billion. Load factor expanded 210 bps to 85.8% as well. Additionally, passenger count rose 3.3% to 8.61 billion in the first nine months of 2017.

Hawaiian Holdings, which will release its third-quarter 2017 results on Oct 19, increased its guidance for gallons of jet fuel consumed and economic fuel cost per gallon. The carrier, based in Honolulu County, HI, expects gallons of jet fuel consumed to increase year over year between 3% and 4% (previous guidance had called for an increase between 3% and 5%).

Rising fuel costs have caused the carrier to project economic fuel cost per gallon between $1.65 and $1.75 (previous guidance had estimated the metric between $1.55 and $1.65). We expect rising costs (fuel and labor) to hurt the bottom line in the third quarter.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Hawaiian Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in airline space are Deutsche Lufthansa AG DLAKY, GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. GOL and SkyWest, Inc. SKYW. While Deutsche Lufthansa sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), GOL Linhas and SkyWest hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of Deutsche Lufthansa and GOL Linhas have surged more than 74% and 60%, respectively, in the last six months, whereas SkyWest shares have rallied in excess of 45% over the same time frame.

5 Trades Could Profit "Big-League" from Trump Policies

If the stocks above spark your interest, wait until you look into companies primed to make substantial gains from Washington's changing course.

Today Zacks reveals 5 tickers that could benefit from new trends like streamlined drug approvals, tariffs, lower taxes, higher interest rates, and spending surges in defense and infrastructure.

See these buy recommendations now >>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.