Hawaii-based Airlines - Inter-island CASM?

Anyone with insight into the HA CASM on inter-island flights? One of the highlights of the quarterly conference call was the poor performance of these flights. The reported overall HA CASM was less than 14 CPM. A couple of rough calculations would put the inter-island CASM around 50 CPM if we are to believe that HA lost money here.

I was assuming an $80 average fare, 120 mile stage length, with a 75 % load factor. This give a 50 RASM number which means costs would have to be 50 CPM or greater to result in a loss. Is it really that expensive to run 717s inter-island? It must be crazy expensive running a CRJ on the same routes.

Anyone with insight into the HA CASM on inter-island flights? One of the highlights of the quarterly conference call was the poor performance of these flights. The reported overall HA CASM was less than 14 CPM. A couple of rough calculations would put the inter-island CASM around 50 CPM if we are to believe that HA lost money here.

I was assuming an $80 average fare, 120 mile stage length, with a 75 % load factor. This give a 50 RASM number which means costs would have to be 50 CPM or greater to result in a loss. Is it really that expensive to run 717s inter-island? It must be crazy expensive running a CRJ on the same routes.

I'm only speculating - but I bet it is expensive to run a 717 inter-island. Just to get that bird up in the air is a huge cost - there isn't much cruising time - add landing fees and maintenance - and it gets real expensive very fast. I wouldn't be surprised if the plan is inter-island is a loss leader to support profitable international and mainland operations.

Hmm, it's probably fuel which is expensive for everyone. Also, if I recall, HA lost some tax breaks/exemptions from the State of Hawaii. I think I recall a while back that the landing fees for Hawaii airports went up...this impacts HA the most since they have more landings/departures than any other airline. Then there is also labor...with most 717's at 123 seats, HA is required to have 3 flight attendants. If HA could cram an additional 27 seats into those 717's, they probably would. Of course too, labor costs go up like everything else.