Business Briefs

Hawaiian shifting to iPad entertainment

Hawaiian Airlines will offer Apple iPad minis on all of its Boeing 767-300 flights beginning Sunday.

The airline has contracted Bluebox Avionics, a global provider of portable entertainment systems to airline carriers, to supply 1,500 iPad minis on 14 Boeing 767 aircraft serving routes between Hawaii and the mainland, Asia and South Pacific. The minis will replace current portable entertainment systems on those routes.

The devices will offer more than 100 hours of Hollywood releases, television shows and games. They will be free in business class and $15 in economy class if reserved at the departure gate ($17 if purchased in-flight) in North America; Brisbane, Australia; and Pago Pago, American Samoa; routes.

U.S. jobless aid applications fall to 331,000

WASHINGTON » The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits remained near the lowest level in more than five years last week, a sign that companies are cutting few jobs.

First-time applications for benefits fell 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 331,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, inched up 750 to 331,250 after falling to its lowest level since November 2007 the previous week.

Applications for unemployment benefits reflect layoffs. At the depths of the recession in March 2009, they numbered 670,000. The average has fallen 10 percent this year.

Vodafone may sell Verizon Wireless share

LONDON » Britain’s Vodafone PLC, one of the world’s largest cellphone companies, confirmed Thursday it was talking to Verizon Communications about selling its stake in Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 mobile carrier in the United States.

The company is mulling options for its 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless. Verizon Communications owns the other 55 percent.

Analysts have suggested that Verizon would like to pay about $100 billion for Vodafone’s stake, although reports have said the U.K. group is pressing for as much as $130 billion.

Service industries fuel Philippine growth

MANILA » The Philippine economy remains one of Asia’s fastest growing, expanding 7.5 percent in the second quarter, as robust domestic spending insulated it from weak global demand.

The National Statistical Board said Thursday the latest figure brings first-half growth to 7.6 percent, the highest since reformist President Benigno Aquino III took office in 2010 on a promise to fight corruption and reduce poverty. It said service industries remained the main contributor to growth.

Gross domestic product expanded a revised 7.7 percent in the first quarter. Many other Asian nations are not faring so well, partly because of higher reliance on export manufacturing. China’s growth eased to a two-decade low in the second quarter and Thailand’s economy contracted.

Still, the Philippine stock exchange and the local currency have taken a beating in recent weeks as investors pull out of emerging markets. Such economies have been roiled by the prospect the U.S. central bank will end its stimulus program and, more recently, by concern over possible U.S. military action in Syria, which has boosted oil prices.

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ON THE MOVE

» Sunetric has announced that Russ Winkelman, director of finance and procurement since 2010, has been appointed to the board of the Hawaii Solar Energy Association, which is the largest and oldest nonprofit dedicated to advancing Hawaii’s solar industry. He will work alongside member installers, auditors, distributors, manufacturers and financiers of solar water heating and photovoltaic systems in order to promote the adoption of solar systems and the state’s energy independence from fossil fuel. Winkelman previously worked for Goodrich Aerospace and Motorola.

» Geobunga has hired Liana Bisch as sales and marketing representative. She has 18 years of experience in sales and marketing and visual merchandising, including as sales and marketing manager for Ultimate Innovations and Hawaiian Earth Products and visual merchandising manager for DFS Galleria.