Hawaiian Airlines (HA, NYSE, 52 week range 4.10 – 7.00) cut its third quarter revenue guidance to Wall Street ahead of its earnings announcement later this month. The company is now saying that revenue per passenger mile will fall between 5.2 percent to 6.2 percent. On Sept. 4th, the company expected a drop between 1.5 percent and 4.5 percent. Higher competition in a number of its important routes is driving the lowering of expectations as it affects the airline’s ability to maintain fares at higher levels.

In an 8K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Hawaiian does say that traffic for the quarter is up 25.2 percent, primarily due to an increase of 28 percent in the number of available seats. Hawaiian started flying Honolulu to New York in June. For the year, traffic is up 18.5 percent.

The airline also wants to lower maintenance costs as it adds newer aircraft. It should contribute to the bottom line.

Investors were not happy about the news, sending Hawaiian’s shares down with an intra-day low of 5.29, down 7.2 percent, closing at 5.35, down 6.1 percent.

From Hawaiian’s press release: Hawaiian offers nonstop service to Hawai’i from more U.S. gateway cities (11) than any other airline, along with service from Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, American Samoa, and Tahiti. New nonstop service will begin between Honolulu and Sapporo, Japan (October 30, 2012), Brisbane, Australia (November 27, 2012), and Auckland, New Zealand (March 13, 2013). Hawaiian also provides approximately 170 daily jet flights between the Hawaiian Islands.