SOURCE: News.com.au http://finance.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11439891%255E462,00.html Hawaii eyes local expansion By Steve Creedy November 20, 2004 HAWAIIAN Airlines may look at increasing flights to Sydney and expanding service to other cities if a renewed interest by Australians in visiting Hawaii continues. Speaking during his first visit to Sydney yesterday, Hawaiian president and chief operating officer Mark Dunkerley said the Sydney-Honolulu route had met expectations in it first six months with load factors "pretty comfortably in the eighties". "Our loads are good and we have a palpable sense that Hawaii, which had been a destination somewhat forgotten by Australians for a period, is now coming back to prominence," he said. "So, really, on all fronts, things are going pretty well for us." Hawaiian's decision this year to fly to Sydney marked the first time in a decade a US carrier had started new scheduled services to a major Australian city. The airline entered the Australian market in May with aggressively priced packages as it moved to raise the profile of Hawaii and attract passengers on its four weekly non-stop flights. It moved to re-energise tourism between the two destinations by bringing Hawaiian tourism operators to Sydney and taking Australian representatives to Hawaii. It also began promoting itself as an alternative route to the mainland US through connecting flights to eight US cities, and it plans to expand the list in April to include Las Vegas. Looking back on the first six months, Mr Dunkerley said the airline's first priority was to continue to build Sydney and get to where it understood the market fully. "Once we accomplish that, we of course would be looking to either increase the frequencies to Sydney or look at other Australian destinations or both. "The traffic numbers when we started the service between Australian and Honolulu were one third of that they were 10 years ago, so we understand that there's plenty of headroom in terms of market growth even after our entry." The 75-year-old airline is expected to emerge from US bankruptcy protection next year under new ownership after enjoying a record $US77.5 million operating profit for 2003. That made it the third most profitable airline in the US, where it also regularly tops on-time performance and wins awards for its service. "When 2004 finishes out, we will have had two of the most successful years in the company's history financially," Mr Dunkerley said. He attributed the airline's success in part to the fact it had remained focused on selling Hawaii as a destination and looking after its customers. The Australian