After a year of bruising for the airline industry, Peter Ingram, CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, told CNBC he believes he just got here.
Airlines spent much of 2020 cutting routes and reducing flights due to declining travel demand due to the coronavirus pandemic, but companies such as Delta and United Airlines have announced some new additions in recent months.
Hawaiian Airlines joins the fight with new nonstop flights from Honolulu to Austin, Texas; Orlando, Florida and Ontario, California, will be added in the spring. The Honolulu-based company predicts a rise in air travel in the new year and is trying to capitalize on population trends in the southern states.
“The reason it’s time to announce three new routes is because … we’re very optimistic about 2021,” he told Closing Bell. “These are places we’ve been looking at for a long time. They have a strong demand from Hawaii.”
Austin has established itself as one of the best tech scenes in the country, rivaling the traditional tech ecosystem for which the San Francisco Bay Area is known. The Texas capital has attracted the interest of several technology companies that have opened factories there or announced plans to relocate their headquarters to California.
Earlier this month, Oracle, a key pillar of Silicon Valley, said it would move its headquarters to Austin. She is one of a string of companies planning to relocate corporate operations outside of California.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has moved his personal residence to Texas, splitting most of his time between Austin and Boca Chica, where SpaceX’s facilities are located. Tesla, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and the start-up of the Musk Tunnel, Boring Co., have operations in Austin.
Apple is also growing its presence in the Texas capital, where it is investing $ 1 billion in a 3-million-square-foot campus. The site is expected to employ 5,000 people and is scheduled to open in 2022.
“I’ve seen coverage on your air about how Austin is booming as a technology hub these days and we think a lot of these people will want to travel to Hawaii,” Ingram said. “The same goes for Orlando, which has a growing population.”
Florida is a place where retirees have been moving for a long time and the population of the state has been constantly climbing. Due to population changes in the United States, Texas is expected to add three seats to its U.S. House of Representatives delegation and Florida is expected to take two, the Associated Press reported.
According to Census Bureau estimates, 10 states, including New York, Michigan and California, risk losing at least one seat in the House of Commons, which could have a noticeable effect on the nation’s political map. , according to the AP.
Hawaiian Airlines reported approximately a 90% drop in revenue in its last two quarterly reports.
“At a time when the depth of some of our traditional routes may not be what it used to be, it’s a good opportunity for us to expand our network and see great opportunities for all of that, not just for the year. coming, but for the long term, ”Ingram said.
Shares of Hawaiian Airlines fell 1.55% on a reduced trading day in recognition on Christmas Eve. At $ 17.78 per share, shares are still down 39% to date.
By mid-March, stocks were more than double their pandemic low of $ 7.55.