Hawaiian Air passenger traffic up 4.7%

Hawaiian Airlines’ passenger traffic jumped 4.7 percent in February even though it filled fewer seats.

The state’s largest carrier said Friday that it transported 786,382 people compared with 750,889 in February 2014. Its load factor, or the percentage of seats filled, slipped 1.9 percentage points to 77.9 percent from 79.8 percent.

Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, rose 1.8 percent to 1.02 million from 1 million. Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, increased 4.3 percent to 1.31 million from 1.25 million.

German law requires more women on boards

BERLIN » Germany on Friday became the latest and perhaps most significant country so far to commit itself to improving the representation of women on corporate boards, passing a law that requires some of Europe’s biggest companies to give 30 percent of supervisory seats to women beginning next year. The country is home to some of the biggest multinational companies in the world, including major automobile manufacturing companies, as well as such household names as Deutsche Bank, BASF, Bayer and Merck.

Fewer than 20 percent of the seats on corporate boards in Germany are held by women, giving the measure the potential to substantially alter the corporate governance landscape here and to have repercussions far beyond Germany’s borders. In passing the measure, Germany joined a trend in Europe to legislate a much greater role for women in boardrooms. Norway, Spain and France have set their boardroom quotas for women at 40 percent. Belgium, Iceland, Italy and the Netherlands also have set quotas.

Britain has not legislated boardroom quotas, but a voluntary effort, known as the 30% Club, has helped to substantially increase women’s representation to 23 percent.

The United States has also seen women’s representation grow slightly, up to 17 percent of board seats, without legislative mandates. Last year two dozen major U.S. companies opened a branch of the 30% Club in the United States to press businesses toward the 30 percent goal.

Casino appeals ruling over Trump name

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. » Donald Trump won’t rest until his name is off every last vestige of the Atlantic City casino empire he once owned.

The owners of the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort on Friday appealed a court order in favor of Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, in a lawsuit seeking to strip their name from the casino. Trump Entertainment Resorts — which the real estate mogul and reality TV star no longer runs — filed the appeal in U.S. District Court in Dela­ware of a Feb. 20 ruling enabling the Trumps to move forward with their lawsuit in state court. The Trumps say Trump Entertainment allowed its two Atlantic City casinos to fall into disrepair. That, the Trumps say, damages their personal brand.

Staples, with eye on merger, has lower sales

Staples on Friday reported a drop in sales in the fourth quarter, a decline it hopes to reverse through a merger with its rival Office Depot.

Both companies, struggling with sluggish consumer spending that has hurt the broader retail industry, are waiting for regulatory approval for their $6.3 billion merger. The union would create an office supply behemoth that could better compete with online competitors, which have taken away sales from traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

Staples closed 169 stores last year and said it would continue its plan to close at least 225 stores by the end of this year. At the end of 2014, Staples operated nearly 2,000 stores, mostly in the United States and Britain.

In the fourth quarter, Staples said that sales fell 3.7 percent to $5.7 billion. The company reported a loss of $260 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with $212 million, or 33 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.

U.S. consumers’ pace of borrowing slows

WASHINGTON » Consumers increased their borrowing in January at the slowest pace in more than a year, with borrowing on credit cards actually declining for the second time in the last three months. The Federal Reserve reported Friday that consumer borrowing expanded $11.6 billion in January following a $17.9 billion gain in December. It was the smallest monthly increase since borrowing rose by $8.3 billion in November 2013.

Even though the January increase was more modest than gains over the past year, it pushed total borrowing to a record of $3.33 billion. Credit card borrowing fell by $1.16 billion in January following a $6.2 billion gain in December.

ON THE MOVE

Central Pacific Bank has promoted Lee Mori­waki to executive vice president and chief information officer. He has more than 30 years of experience in the banking industry and was previously senior vice president and loan and deposit operations division manager. Prior to joining CPB, Mori­waki was at Bank of Hawaii serving as a senior executive vice president and managing committee member.

HUGS, a local nonprofit helping families of seriously ill children, has announced officers on its board of directors for 2015: Patrick Klein, HUGS board president as well as director of advertising at Oahu Publications (dba Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser); Jason Higa, past president; Christine Daleiden, president-elect; Chason Ishii, vice president; Wenli Lin, vice president; Charles Loomis, vice president; JoAnn Lumsden, vice president; Bill Tobin, vice president; Catha Combs, secretary; and Franklin Tokioka II, treasurer. HUGS board members also include Darrick J.M. Ching, Calvert Chip­chase, Joel Empe­ra­dor, Rojo Herrera Jr., Dr. Elizabeth Ignacio, Anne Lee, Iris Matsu­moto, Carri Morgan, Terri Okada and Sonja Swenson Rogers.