June 28--Hawaiian Airlines' baggage fees kept the state's largest carrier from going deeper into the red during the first quarter.
While some passengers might feel they're getting pinched by paying $17 to $35 for checked bags, those fees generated $16.6 million in revenue for Hawaiian during the January-March period and helped buffer the rapidly expanding airline's $17.1 million loss in the quarter.
"Revenues (overall) were impacted during the quarter by overcapacity in West Coast markets as well as the effect of a weakening yen," Hawaiian spokesman Keoni Wagner said.
Hawaiian also generated $4.7 million in reservation cancellation and change fees last quarter to bring its total fees from those items and checked bags to $21.2 million, according to data released Thursday by the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Colorado-based airline consultant Mike Boyd said Hawaiian's baggage fees can't be expected to offset recent expenses the company has been incurring.
"There are other issues happening with Hawaiian bringing in new airplanes and expanding into new markets," he said. "That's expensive, and the loss is due to extraordinary things they've gone through the last three or four months."
Airlines have relied heavily on baggage fees and other ancillary revenue to help offset their expenses since fuel prices began to spike. They began charging for checked bags in 2008, and during the first quarter of this year, the 15 largest U.S. airlines pulled in $800.4 million, up 1.9 percent from $785.8 million in the year-earlier period. They also collected $685.2 million in fees for reservation cancellations and flight changes, up 8.6 percent from $631 million a year ago.
Hawaiian's first-quarter baggage fees, which represented $6.90 per passenger, were up 2.8 percent from $16.1 million in the first quarter of 2012. The airline's reservation cancellation and change fees edged up 0.6 percent from $4.6 million in the year-earlier period.
Delta Air Lines took in both the most baggage and cancellation/change fees last quarter at $191.9 million and $198.6 million, respectively. This came during a quarter in which the nation's 10 largest carriers reported a net loss of $433 million, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
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