KAILUA-KONA — Hawaiian Airlines flew a record number of passengers in 2018, registering a total of 11,840,178. The number was a 2.9 percent increase over the previous year. It was the airline’s 14th straight year of growth.
The year’s numbers hit all-time high marks despite a December that saw a decrease in passenger load of 1.9 percent, down to just over 980,000 in 2018 from a little over 1 million the year before.
Fourth quarter passenger numbers also dipped slightly from last year, coming in around 2,890,000 this year as opposed to roughly 2,910,000 in 2017, a decrease of 0.8 percent.
Load factor, or the percentage of seating capacity actually filled, dropped in December (from 84.4 percent to 84 percent), the fourth quarter (86 percent to 84.6 percent) and during the entire year as a whole (85.8 percent to 85.3 percent).
However, revenue passenger miles and available seat miles were up across the board in 2018.
Hawaiian took delivery of nine A321neo aircraft in 2018, bringing the total size of its A321neo fleet to 11 aircraft. The A321neo will aid the airline in new flight offerings including daily non-stop service to Maui’s Kahului Airport from Portland, Sacramento and San Diego international airports, as well as to Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport from Long Beach.
The airline will also begin new five-times-a-week non-stop service to Honolulu from Boston’s Logan International Airport on April 4.