In court papers filed last night, Gotbaum said that he's entitled to the fee given Hawaiian's successful emergence from bankruptcy in June in which creditors were paid in full and where shareholders saw their stock values rise.

The so-called success fee is on top of $1.4 million in salary and expenses that he's already received from Hawaiian.

Gotbaum's fee represents about 11 percent of Hawaiian's 2004 operating income and is more than double the amount paid to the highest compensated local chief executive officer last year.

"Hawaiian's bankruptcy has turned out amazingly well for its creditors, its shareholders and its extraordinary employees," Gotbaum said in a news release. "Now the judge must decide what's right for Hawaiian's trustee."

But the chairman of Hawaiian's parent company, Larry Hershfield, called the fee request "outrageous," adding the airline would oppose it.

"Given current industry conditions and a realistic analysis of who-did-what during the bankruptcy, we think the requests are outrageous," he said.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris has scheduled a Sept. 21 hearing on fees requested by Gotbaum and the airline's outside consultants.

Chuck Choi, attorney for Hawaiian's unsecured creditors, had no immediate response.

Kirk McBride, chairman of the 380-member Hawaiian unit of the Airline Pilots Association, called Gotbaum's fee request "an outrage," saying the former trustee was well-compensated during the period he worked at Hawaiian.

Gotbaum's bankruptcy court-approved compensation included $50,000 a month in salary plus $10,000 a month in living and other expenses.

McBride noted that the $8 million success fee is equivalent to about 20 percent of the annual payroll of Hawaiian's pilots.

"This is a slap in the face of the pilots of Hawaiian who made significant structural changes in their contract to ensure the success of the company," McBride said. "I don't believe Gotbaum's tenure this warrants this sort of success fee."