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Hawaiian Holdings Arm to Bid CEO Dunkerley Adieu Next March

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Hawaiian Holdings, Inc.’s (HA - Free Report) wholly-owned subsidiary, Hawaiian Airlines, recently announced that its CEO Mark Dunkerley will retire in March 2018. He will be succeeded by Peter Ingram, the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer.

Having joined the company in 2002, Dunkerley served the post since 2005 and his tenure has been one of the longest in the airline industry. Previously, he worked as an Executive at British Airways.

Credit goes to Dunkerley for bringing about great changes to the company. A major step was expanding its international footprint across Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Earlier, the carrier depended primarily on demand from the U.S. mainland and the Hawaiian islands. Now international travel fetches around one-fourth of the airline’s revenues.

Under Dunkerley’s leadership, the Hawaiian Airlines’ stock price increased six-fold from 2014 through 2016. The carrier’s net income has also risen in each of the preceding three years. Per FactSet survey, it is expected to be around $300 million this year.

Notably, Ingram joined the company as Chief Financial Officer in 2005. Since 2011, he has been looking after marketing, sales and network planning among other operations.

Once assuming office as a CEO, Ingram will be faced with a new challenge. For, Southwest Airlines (LUV - Free Report) plans to begin service to Hawaii either in 2018 or 2019. This will pose stiff competition to Hawaiian Airlines in its key market.

Investors seem to be skeptical about the news, evidently impacting the company’s shares. The stock declined 3.2% at the close of the trading session on Nov 17.

 

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Hawaiian Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the airline space are International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (ICAGY - Free Report) and Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLAKY - Free Report) . While International Consolidated Airlines sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Deutsche Lufthansa carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here

Shares of International Consolidated Airlines and Deutsche Lufthansa have surged more than 43% and 100%, respectively, in a year.

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