Business Briefs
Hawaiian Air boosts Tokyo capacity
Hawaiian Airlines will increase capacity on its daily nonstop flight between Honolulu and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport beginning today when it transitions to one of its newly acquired Airbus A330-200 aircraft.
The shift to the 294-seat A330 from the 264-seat Boeing B767-300 will add nearly 11,000 seats annually to Honolulu from Tokyo. Hawaiian began its service to Haneda on Nov. 17.
Hawaiian will inaugurate daily nonstop service to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport on Tuesday from Honolulu.
HawTel edges up in Nasdaq debut
Hawaiian Telcom made a quiet debut in its first day of Nasdaq trading Wednesday, closing up 15 cents at $25.45 a share.
The state’s largest telephone company is now trading under the ticker symbol HCOM. The stock, whick closed Tuesday at $25.30 in over-the-counter trading, opened Wednesday at $26 a share. The stock changed hands as low as $25.30 in late trading before rebounding to close at $25.45.
Trading volume totaled 66,346 shares, up from the 48,000 daily average over the previous five trading sessions.
The company has 10.1 million shares outstanding and a market capitalization of $258 million.
State jobless claims expand online
The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations is expanding its program that allows residents to file unemployment insurance claims online.
Beginning Monday, unemployed workers will be able to reactivate their existing claims using the department’s website.
Until now, workers could file new claims online but had to visit an unemployment office or call to reactivate those claims if there was a break in their coverage.
The department estimates that more than 50 percent of the weekly unemployment insurance filings are from workers reactivating their existing claims.
"Expanding our online system will improve access to our services while increasing the efficiency of our process," said Dwight Takamine, DLIR director.
For more information about filing an unemployment insurance claim, go to http://hawaii.gov/labor/ui.
A&B hires Goldman exec as CFO
Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has hired a Goldman Sachs senior investment banking adviser to be its new chief financial officer.
The Honolulu company selected Joel Wine for the position after a roughly four-month search.
Wine’s job at Goldman in San Francisco included providing strategic and financial advice to many companies, including A&B, which A&B said gives Wine a close working knowledge of the firm and broad experience in strategic and financial matters.
Wine will succeed Chris Benjamin as CFO, allowing Benjamin to become president of A&B’s real estate and agricultural division.
A&B announced in March that Benjamin would shift positions once a new CFO was hired, in part to fill an opening created by the retirement plans of Norb Buelsing as president of real estate subsidiary A&B Properties Inc.
Wine and Benjamin will assume their new positions Sept. 1, and Buelsing will retire after helping make a smooth transition.
The Honolulu Executives Association has elected new officers: >> Jimmy Bennett, a certified financial planner with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, is president.
ON THE MOVE
>> Jaslyn Silver, of Hanamura Appraisal, is vice president.
>> Board members are Kevin Sakamoto of Bank of Hawaii, Daryl Masaki of Masaki’s Auto Repair and Tires, Caroline Sakai of Thought Field Therapy, Mike Wiley of Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Pete Martinez of eBizHawaii.com.
Public information officer, public relations and marketing delegates for the biennial convention of the Hawaii State Association of Parliamentarians have elected William J. Puette as president for 2011-2013. Puette is one of the state’s only professional registered parliamentarians as well as the faculty director of University of Hawaii at West Oahu’s Center for Labor Education and Research, CLEAR.
The Hawaii Community Foundation has awarded Aloha Harvest a $40,000 “challenge” grant from the Omidyar ‘Ohana Fund. The grant will be used to purchase two new food delivery vehicles with the requirement that the organization secure a matching dollar amount from donors by December 2011.
Hagadone Printing Co. has appointed Susan Chinn as marketing and national accounts divisions manager. She has more than 15 years of marketing and advertising experience, including circulation marketing coordinator at Honolulu Star-Advertiser and held several marketing positions at the Honolulu Advertiser.
