Hawaiian Air expands Bay Area service
Hawaiian Airlines will increase seating capacity on its nonstop daily service between San Francisco and Honolulu beginning Nov. 6 when it shifts to its larger Airbus A330-200 aircraft for the route.
In addition, Hawaiian will start nonstop service to Maui in January when it launches previously announced new flights from both San Jose and Oakland on Boeing 767-300ERs. Hawaiian will fly three days a week from San Jose starting Jan. 10 and four days a week from Oakland beginning Jan. 11.
Altogether, the larger aircraft for San Francisco and the new Maui service will add 107,000 new seats annually from the Bay Area to Hawaii.
The A330 carries 294 passengers, while the Boeing 767-300, which is presently used on the San Francisco route, has 264 seats.
"Demand for our service to Hawaii from the Bay Area is growing, and we are responding with more capacity and more choices," Hawaiian President and CEO Mark Dunkerley said Tuesday.
The new Bay Area-Maui flights are in addition to the daily nonstop flights that Hawaiian currently offers to Honolulu from both San Jose and Oakland.
Boyd’s earnings fall despite lift from Hawaii
LAS VEGAS » Boyd Gaming Corp.’s third-quarter net income fell 45 percent as the casino operator, despite a lift from Hawaii customers, saw a decline in gambling and food and beverage revenue and spent more on promotions to lure gamblers.
But the company’s adjusted results surpassed Wall Street’s expectations. Boyd earned $3.1 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with $5.6 million, or 6 cents a share, a year ago.
Taking out pre-opening expenses, write-downs and other items, adjusted earnings were 5 cents a share. The performance beat the penny per share that analysts surveyed by FactSet expected.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, revenue dipped 1 percent to $590.2 million from $595.4 million as the company made less in gambling revenue and food and beverage revenue.
But the company said on a conference call that it experienced strong growth from Hawaii and that "visitation and play among geographic Hawaiians was up significantly during the third quarter."
"There are several factors playing in our favor in Hawaii," Boyd Chief Operating Officer Paul Chakmak said. "First and foremost, Hawaii’s economy has been strong, providing our customers greater confidence and more discretionary income. And second, we continue to be successful in marketing to our Hawaiian customers, which helped drive growth in this market segment."
Chakmak said that Boyd is better positioned to take advantage of the growing demand from Hawaii after putting a Boeing 767 into service on its Vacations Hawaii charter route earlier this month.
"This aircraft gives us a 12 percent increase in available seats, allowing us to fly in more than 6,000 additional customers per year based on our current five-flights-per-week rotation while improving the customer experience," he said.
Grants offered for breast cancer cure
The Hawaii Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure is offering grants to organizations working to find cures, provide screening and assist women and men to prevent and fight breast cancer.
The grants are for a maximum of $25,000. The deadline for applications is Dec. 7. For information, go to komenhawaii.org or call 754-6659.
Consumers in bad mood before holidays
NEW YORK » Americans say they feel worse about the economy than they have since the depths of the Great Recession. And it’s a bad time for a bad mood because households are starting to make their holiday budgets.
It might not be all doom and gloom, though. Sometimes what people say about the economy and how they behave are two different things.
Consumer confidence fell in October to the lowest level since March 2009, reflecting the big hit that the stock market took during the summer and frustration with an economic recovery that doesn’t really feel like one.
The Conference Board, a private research group, said its index of consumer sentiment came in at 39.8, down about six points from September and seven shy of what economists were expecting.
The reading is still well above where the index stood 21/2 years ago, at 26.9.
But it’s not even within shouting distance of 90, the level that signals the economy is on solid footing.
ON THE MOVE
Colette Abe has joined RIM Design as an interior designer and project manager in the Honolulu office. Her six-year experience includes health care, commercial office/retail, hospitality, resorts/clubs, educational, transportation and judiciary facilities.
Sopogy has appointed Craig Lobdell to vice president of strategy. He has more than 21 years of energy, clean technology and venture capital experience.
Bowers + Kubota Consulting won top honors in the CE News 2011 Best Firms to Work For competition, beating out 48 other firms from across the country to earn the No. 1 ranking. It’s the highest ranking that any architectural engineering company in Hawaii has ever achieved.
American Savings Bank has awarded a $5,000 donation to PATCH, a private nonprofit that supports and improves the quality and availability of care for the young people of Hawaii. The funds will help support families looking for quality and affordable child care as well as train and support preschool teachers and child-care providers.
