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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, December 6, 2003

Hawaiian Airlines employees to share firm's profits

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaiian Airlines 3,000 employees will receive their share of $3 million in profit-sharing checks this month, the company announced yesterday.

The minimum payments amount to $100 before taxes. Company officials yesterday could not immediately say what the average payment would be.

The checks are the result of a profit-sharing plan negotiated as part of employee concessions earlier this year and record operating profits from April through December.

Hawaiian, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, had estimated earlier that it would generate $24 million in operating profit for the nine months beginning in April.

Instead, Hawaiian already had generated $54 million in operating profit by the end of September. Under the profit-sharing agreement, employees will receive 10 percent of the $30 million in profits that were actually earned above the forecast.

Both union and nonunion employees are eligible, but not company officers.

The record operating profits came in addition to a one-time, $17 million grant from the Transportation Security Administration.

"Hawaiian Airlines has enjoyed an extraordinary six-month period," Josh Gotbaum, Hawaiian's bankruptcy trustee, said in a statement. "Hawaiian committed in its labor agreements that employees would share in its profits and we honor those commitments."

The profit-sharing program could also generate bonuses after the December, March and June quarters, Gotbaum said.

"There are no guarantees about the future," Gotbaum said in a note to employees, "but if we continue to do well, then everyone who participated will benefit."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.