Hawaiian Airlines Shells Out $31 Million in Employee Bonuses

On Thursday, Hawaiian Airlines announced it spent $31 million in bonuses and profit sharing to reward its 7,100 employees for their "exceptional" job performances in 2018.

That amount is a little more than 11% of the airline's $274.8 million in net profit.

“Our people are the heart of Hawaiian,” Peter Ingram, president and CEO of Hawaiian Airlines, said in a statement. “This year was not without challenges, including devastating volcanic activity and flooding. Through it all, our employees welcomed a record 11.8 million guests with our signature Hawaiian hospitality and leading punctuality, volunteered to support our communities, and worked to solidify our company’s future.”

Hawaiian's profit share comes after larger US airlines gave their employees millions in bonuses earlier this year. Those profit shares break down as follows:

• Delta Air Lines gave out a massive $1.3 billion in profit shares for 2018, or a 14% bonus on an employee’s base pay.
• Southwest Airlines gave out $544 million through its 2018 profit sharing plan, or about 10.8% of each eligible employee’s compensation.
• American Airlines distributed $175 million for its profit sharing program. That's only 1.4% of each employee’s base pay.
• United Airlines said its employees “earned $334 million in profit sharing for 2018.” United has two profit sharing pools, with pilots earning around 4% of base pay and everyone earning around 3%.

Although these airlines distributed more money than Hawaiian, they are vastly bigger carriers with more employees, planes and larger annual profits.

Hawaiian did not make clear what percentage of eligible employees' annual salaries the individual bonuses would be.

TPG's Darren Murph contributed to this report.