NEW YORK -- Increased competition on several key routes led Hawaiian Airlines Inc. to cut its third-quarter revenue expectations on Tuesday. The stock of its parent company, Hawaiian Holdings Inc., lost as much as 6 percent.
The company now expects its passenger revenue per available seat mile, which measures how much money the airline makes to fly a passenger a single mile, will fall between 5.2 and 6.2 percent in the quarter that ended last month. It previously forecast a decline of between 1.5 and 4.5 percent. Hawaiian said competitors have beefed up flights on a number of key routes, which is causing it to lower its expectations. When airlines compete, passengers can defect but fares also tend to go down.
Despite a more pessimistic view of revenue, Hawaiian said traffic in the quarter jumped 25.2 percent. That was mostly due to an uptick in the number of available seats as the airline expanded flying by 28 percent. Hawaiian started flying nonstop between New York and Honolulu in June.
So far this year, traffic is up 18.5 percent.
Shares lost 29 cents or 5.1 percent to $5.41 in afternoon trading. The stock has traded between $4.10 and $7 in the past year.