Hawaiian Airlines Extends Its Top-Rated Service Excellence in September

HONOLULU, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawaiian Airlines again led the nation's carriers in service performance for September, scoring the industry's highest marks for best on-time performance, best baggage handling and fewest oversales, according to the monthly Air Travel Consumer Report issued today by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

    Rank      On-Time           Baggage           Fewest           Fewest
              Service          Handling         Oversales(1)    Cancellations

    1         HAWAIIAN         HAWAIIAN         HAWAIIAN         Continental
    2         Aloha            JetBlue          AirTran          Frontier
    3         Frontier         Continental      JetBlue          JetBlue
    4         Southwest        Aloha            Aloha            ATA
    5         ExpressJet       AirTran          Frontier         HAWAIIAN

September marked the 35th consecutive month that Hawaiian has ranked as the nation's best on-time airline, dating back to November 2003. It was also the fifth straight month that Hawaiian has led the nation's carriers in both on-time performance and baggage handling.

"To be so consistently outstanding in the service categories most valued by travelers is a record that speaks for itself and conveys the enormous sense of respect our employees carry for our customers," said Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian's president and CEO.

During September, 96.0 percent of Hawaiian's flights arrived as scheduled, surpassing the industry average of 76.2 percent by 19.8 percent. Emphasizing the excellence of its punctuality, Hawaiian's on-time performance averaged 95.8 percent for the third quarter and 95.0 percent year-to-date. (To meet DOT standards, a flight must arrive within 15 minutes of schedule to be considered on time.).

Along with being the #1 airline at keeping customers on time, Hawaiian was the nation's best at taking care of customers' luggage, with an industry-low 2.90 mishandled baggage reports for every 1,000 passengers. Not surprisingly, Hawaiian also tops all other carriers year-to-date with an average of 2.98 mishandled baggage reports per 1,000 passengers.

Hawaiian was perfect in the category of oversales for the third quarter, reporting zero involuntary denied boardings -- the only airline to do so -- out of 1.6 million passengers carried. Year-to-date Hawaiian has recorded the second-best score nationally, with only 41 involuntary denied boardings out of 4.6 million passengers served.

Hawaiian ranked fifth nationally in fewest cancelled flights during September, with a score of 0.7 percent representing 31 cancellations out of 4,407 total flights.

Although only four complaints were submitted to DOT during September, Hawaiian ranked 12th overall in consumer complaints with a score of 0.82 percent for every 100,000 passengers. However, Hawaiian has the industry's fourth highest ranking year-to-date at 0.52 percent, representing only 24 complaints out of 4.6 million passengers served.

The DOT report covers 20 airlines, including 10 carriers providing service for Hawaii. The full report is available online at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/atcr06.htm.

About Hawaiian Airlines

Hawaiian was the nation's number one carrier for on-time service, fewest flight cancellations and best baggage service reliability in 2005, according to reports by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Consumer travel surveys conducted by Conde Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and Zagat all rank Hawaiian as the top domestic airline serving Hawaii.

Now in its 77th year of continuous service in Hawaii, Hawaiian is the state's biggest and longest-serving airline, and the second largest provider of passenger air service between Hawaii and the U.S. mainland. Hawaiian offers nonstop service to Hawaii from more U.S. gateway cities than any other airline (nine), as well as service to Australia, American Samoa and Tahiti. Hawaiian also provides approximately 100 daily jet flights among the Hawaiian Islands.

Hawaiian Airlines, Inc. is a subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (Amex: HA; PCX). Additional information is available at HawaiianAirlines.com.

(1) Reported quarterly by DOT. Reflects third quarter 2006.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040827/LAF044LOGO)