Hawaiian Air sees increase in passengers

Hawaiian Airlines’ passenger traffic rose 5.8 percent in August from the same month a year ago as the rapidly expanding carrier added more flights.

The state’s largest airline said Thursday it transported 928,616 passengers compared with 877,362 a year ago. Hawaiian’s load factor, or the percentage of seats filled, increased 1 percentage point to 85.3 percent from 84.3 percent.

Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, rose 9 percent to 1.3 million from 1.2 million.

Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, increased 7.8 percent to 1.5 million from 1.4 million.

First Hawaiian allowing mobile deposits

First Hawaiian Bank introduces a new service today that allows customers to deposit checks using their smartphones or iPads.

Mobile Deposit lets customers take a photograph of a check and deposit it directly into an eligible First Hawaiian checking account using an iPhone, iPad or Android mobile device. This free service is for First Hawaiian online customers signed up for Mobile Banking.

For information visit www.fhb.com/mobile or download the First Hawaiian mobile app.

Isle lender enters property management

The parent company of a local mortgage lender has expanded into the residential property management business.

HHL Holdings Inc., parent of Honolulu HomeLoans Inc., recently acquired local property management firm The Property Managers Ltd. and rebranded the operation as Honolulu Property Management.

Property Managers, a 12-person firm established in 1985, managed about 560 residential units. The firm’s president, P.J. Moore, will lead the new company for HHL. The whole staff of Property Managers was retained in the move, and HHL said the transition will be seamless for property owners, tenants and vendors.

HHL said it expects to hire more people as it is able to expand the business, and is seeking additional mergers.

Honolulu HomeLoans was formed in 2010 and established the HHL holding company to branch into other areas of businesses that would counterbalance cyclical downturns in the residential mortgage loan business.

Penney axes Martha Stewart, report says

NEW YORK » J.C. Penney may be ending the tug-of-war with its nemesis over Martha Stewart’s products.

The chain is reportedly dumping the Martha Stewart brand, after sales of the home maven’s goods failed to live up to expectations. The move, reported by the New York Post on Thursday, comes as a judge is expected to rule in a lengthy court battle between J.C. Penney Co. and rival Macy’s Inc. over whether Macy’s has an exclusive right to sell some of her products.

The Post cited unidentified sources as saying that Mike Ullman, a former Penney CEO who returned to the top job this year, made the decision to drop Martha Stewart because of poor sales.

CNBC has reported that Martha Stewart is saying that her company has no intention of ending her deal with J.C. Penney.

Emails seeking comment from Martha Stewart and J.C. Penney on the newspaper report were not returned.

30-year mortgage rate increases to 4.57 percent

WASHINGTON >> Average fixed rates on U.S. long-term mortgages neared their highs for the year this week amid signs of further strength in the economy.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan was 4.57 percent this week. That’s up from 4.51 percent last week and close to the high this year of 4.58 percent reached Aug. 22.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage rose from 3.54 percent to 3.59 percent. That’s near the year’s high of 3.6 percent.

Long-term mortgage rates have risen more than a full percentage point since May, when Chairman Ben Bernanke first signaled that the Federal Reserve could reduce its bond purchases later this year if the economy continued to strengthen. The bond purchases have been intended to keep long-term loan rates ultra-low.

ON THE MOVE

The University of Hawaii Foundation has promoted:

» KC Collins to executive director of development for the regional and community colleges. She was previously director of development for regional and community colleges at UH Foundation.

» Mariko Miho to executive director of development in Hilo. She was previously the senior director of development for regional and community colleges at UH Foundation.

Graham Builders has announced that Chad Okuhara has joined the firm as project manager. Okuhara was previously an accounting manager at MW Group as well as a senior accountant at Wachi & Watanabe CPA.