Aloha loses $12 million in fourth quarter

Advertiser Staff and News Services

Aloha Airlines reported it lost $12 million in the fourth quarter of last year despite federal aid it received after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Documents filed with the federal government show that the airline had a fourth-quarter loss from operations alone of $16.5 million as it worked to cope with the severe drop in air travel.

Earlier this year documents filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, as part of the proposed merger of Hawaiian and Aloha airlines, showed the carriers were losing up to $270,000 a day after the attacks.

Aloha's quarterly loss was reduced by the $7.7 million that the airline received from a federal emergency fund set up to help the nation's airlines recover from post-Sept. 11 losses.

Aloha said that for all of 2001, it posted a net loss of $10.6 million, compared with a net loss of $4.3 million for 2000.

Despite the loss, the airline said that it is financially stable and growing and that its new Mainland business is compensating for a decline in interisland travel.

Aloha president Glenn Zander said the airline has rearranged its debt and has a cash reserve of $30 million as it prepares to move forward alone since the collapse of its planned merger.

Among its expansion plans, Aloha announced this month that it will launch daily service from Honolulu to Burbank, Calif., on June 1, and to Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 15.