NWA Buys Stake in Hawaiian Air, Key Route : Airlines: The troubled island-based carrier gets $13 million, a loan and a linkup into a frequent-flier program. Northwest gains a route to Australia.

Cash-starved HAL Inc., the parent of Hawaiian Airlines, on Monday agreed to sell a 25% ownership stake and its prized Australian route to the parent of Northwest Airlines for a badly needed $13 million.

HAL said Northwest parent NWA Inc. also agreed to lend it $7 million.

In return for extending HAL a financial lifeline, Northwest gets three South Pacific routes--including the route to Australia--for a bargain price. According to figures provided by the carrier, Northwest is likely to recover its investment in one year from profits on the Australian route alone.

This is the second recent transaction in which a strong airline has teamed up with a weaker one. As with United Airlines’ recent agreement to buy Pan American World Airways’ coveted London routes for $400 million, Northwest’s deal with Hawaiian includes a linkup of the carrier’s frequent-flier plans.

But by buying a stake in Hawaiian, Northwest is taking the airline industry’s consolidation fervor one step further.

Paul Turk, an airline analyst with the Avmark consulting firm in Washington, called the price Northwest is paying exceptionally reasonable. “Northwest got themselves a deal on that one,” he said.

The low price suggests how desperate Hawaiian is for cash. The struggling Honolulu-based carrier is in default on its bank loans and aircraft leases. Under its current loan agreements, it must repay its lender, Security Pacific National Bank, $20 million on a $131-million loan by Jan. 31.

The funds from Northwest should help HAL meet that repayment deadline, although the airline said it had no specific plans for the money.

HAL has been losing money for some time, but its condition worsened after former baseball commissioner Peter V. Ueberroth and his partner, J. Thomas Talbott, took control in a leveraged buyout a year ago. The airline has had to make sharply higher debt payments at a time when fuel costs have soared because of the Persian Gulf crisis.

HAL lost $56.3 million in the first nine months of 1990 and expects a loss for the fourth quarter.

A number of details concerning the transaction have not been finalized. Talbott, HAL’s chairman, said it hadn’t been determined whether the airline would issue new shares to NWA, or would sell it securities convertible to a 25% stake. In any event, the effect of the transaction would be to reduce the stake held by Talbott and Ueberroth. Together, they control 77% of HAL’s common shares.

HAL’s shares rose $1.125, closing at $10.125 on the American Stock Exchange Monday, after trading as high as $11.75 earlier in the day.

The route sales must be approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Talbott disputed suggestions that HAL gave away its Australian route. He said the deal with Northwest has value to HAL that goes beyond the price tag.

Besides the route sale, Northwest and Hawaiian are forming a frequent-flier marketing relationship that Talbott said is worth about $40 million a year to Hawaiian Airlines. The figure reflects marketing assistance and cost savings. For example, Hawaiian and Northwest will now share a gate at Los Angeles International Airport.

In addition, Northwest agreed to lease HAL two DC-10 jets so the carrier can begin service between Honolulu and Fukuoka, Japan.

Talbott said he hoped that the agreement with Northwest would prompt Security Pacific to take another look at HAL’s loan repayment schedule. However, Security Pacific disclosed huge loan losses Monday, and it might not be willing to show HAL a great deal of patience.

For Northwest, the transaction is in line with the Eagan, Minn.-based carrier’s stated intention of looking for bargains among the industry’s ailing carriers. Northwest has looked at Pan Am and Eastern Airlines too.

The acquisition of the Honolulu-Sydney route completes a yearlong quest on the part of Northwest for an Australian route, as well as giving the carrier a window to the South Pacific. Currently, Northwest serves only East Asia, including Japan.

A year ago, when Northwest applied to the DOT for a route to Sydney, it said it expected an operating profit of $16 million in the first year. Northwest lost the competition for the route but three months ago sought DOT permission to take over Hawaiian’s route, since the money-losing airline had suspended service to Australia temporarily.

The sale evolved from those discussions.

Northwest is also getting Hawaiian’s authority to fly between Guam and Saipan and between two Japanese cities that Northwest does not serve, Nagoya and Fukuoka.

Turk said the transaction suggests that Northwest won’t be a bidder on Continental Airlines’ Pacific routes. Continental is in bankruptcy proceedings, and there is speculation it may sell some of its Asian routes to raise cash.