Air Australia to be liquidated after financial turbulence
Air Australia, the 2-year-old carrier that launched nonstop service to Honolulu in December only to abruptly shut down two months later, will be liquidated. The carrier was placed in the U.S. equivalent of bankruptcy on Feb. 16. The airline had been flying to Hawaii twice a week from Melbourne and Brisbane. Air Australia had debt of between $83 million and $93 million, according to the administrator overseeing the airline’s bankruptcy.
Creditors unanimously voted Friday to place the company in liquidation. By doing so, Air Australia’s 350 employees are expected to receive some of their lost wages. A federal government program to provide basic entitlements will give them about $5 million of the $8 million they are owed.
Consumer confidence off a hair in March
NEW YORK » Americans’ rosy outlook about the U.S. economy remains resilient as they focus on the good in the barrage of conflicting economic news.
A widely watched barometer of consumer confidence barely budged in March from February’s reading, which was its highest in a year. That was despite mixed economic signs. The stock market is up but so are gas prices. Unemployment is falling but so are home prices.
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index slipped to 70.2 for March from a revised 71.6 for February.
Urban-market home prices fell in January
WASHINGTON » Home prices fell in January for a fifth straight month in most major U.S. cities, as modest sales increases have yet to boost prices.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index released Tuesday showed that prices dropped in January from December in 16 of 19 cities tracked.
The steepest declines were in San Francisco, Atlanta and Portland, Ore. Prices increased in Miami, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. Price information for Charlotte, N.C., was delayed and therefore not included in the report.
Enbridge investing billions in pipeline work
CALGARY, Alberta » Pipeline builder Enbridge Inc. is investing $3.8 billion in a new round of construction that will increase the flow of Canadian oil sands crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Enbridge, Canada’s largest transporter of crude, said Tuesday it will expand its Flanagan South Pipeline from Flanagan, Ill., to Cushing, Okla., to a 36-inch-diameter line with a capacity of 585,000 barrels per day.
The Flanagan pipeline, expected to be in service by mid-2014, will be built along the route of Enbridge’s existing pipeline from southeast of Chicago to Oklahoma.
Microsoft co-founder hit in fraud attempt
PHILADELPHIA » An AWOL soldier’s simple scheme to defraud one of the richest men in the world has landed him in federal custody, according to a criminal complaint.
In the complaint, unsealed Monday, federal investigators allege Brandon Lee Price changed the address on a bank account held by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, then had a debit card sent to his Pittsburgh home so he could use it for payments on a delinquent Armed Forces Bank account and personal expenses.
Price called Citibank in January and changed the address on an account held by Allen from Seattle to Pittsburgh, then called back three days later to say he had lost his debit card and asked for a new one to be sent to him, an FBI investigator wrote in a criminal complaint filed in February.
The complaint doesn’t specify how Price allegedly changed the address on the account.
Walgreen’s profit slides nearly 8 percent
Walgreen Co.’s fiscal second-quarter earnings fell almost 8 percent, knocked down largely by its exit from the Express Scripts pharmacy network, but the drugstore operator’s results still topped analyst expectations, and its shares outperformed broader market indexes Tuesday.
The nation’s largest drugstore chain said its split with Express Scripts, a St. Louis-based pharmacy benefits manager, lowered its earnings by about 7 cents per share for the quarter that ended Feb. 29. A mild cold and flu season also affected earnings by about 3 cents per share.
Express Scripts paid Walgreen to fill prescriptions, and the companies let their contract expire at the end of last year when they months of talks failed to produce a new deal. Pharmacy benefits managers, or PBMs, run prescription drug plans and use large purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices.
Harry Potter breaks e-book lockdown
NEW YORK » The Harry Potter books are finally on sale in electronic form, and they have a special magical touch to them: In a break with industry practices, the books aren’t locked down by encryption, which means consumers can move them between devices and read them anywhere they like.
If Pottermore, J.K. Rowling’s new Web store, proves a success, it could provide a model for other authors and publishers and undermine the clout of Amazon.com Inc., which dominates e-book sales.
E-books from major publishers are sold in encrypted form today, tying them to specific devices or software programs. Publishers insist on encryption because they believe it stops piracy. It also helps e-book retailers like Amazon defend their business models, keeping non-Amazon books off Kindle e-readers.
On the Move
Stacy Evensen has been named director of educational and vocational services at Hale Kipa. She has more than 25 years of executive management experience in the health care sector, including serving as chairwoman and director of Hale Kipa’s board, and worked at HMSA for 25 years.
The Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii has appointed the following to its board of directors:
>> Eugene Nishimura, owner and general manager of Hokulani Kigyo, doing business as Professional Commercial Services, a truck repair and general merchandise transportation company.
>> Shannon Okinaka, vice president/controller at Hawaiian Airlines.
