Hawaiian Air traffic up

Hawaiian Airlines’ passenger traffic rose 4 percent in March from year-earlier levels. There were 732,066 passengers last month compared with 703,845 a year ago as available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, jumped 22.1 percent to 956.5 million. Hawaiian’s percentage of seats filled slipped 1.1 percentage points to 85 percent. Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, increased 20.6 percent to 813.4 million.

‘Off the Map’ ends season on low

“Off the Map,” ABC’s Hawaii-based drama about doctors in a remote jungle clinic, ended its freshman season Wednesday night with 3.8 million viewers, its lowest overall audience, according to Nielsen ratings information released yesterday by the network.

But the series still demonstrated marked improvement for the network’s year-to-year ratings. The average number of weekly overall viewers for “Off the Map” — a statistic that includes additional viewers who record the show and watch it later — was 6 million. Last season, when ABC aired the series “Ugly Betty,” that series averaged 5.4 million viewers.

The playback statistics are a key factor. The series averages 1.44 million additional viewers when the recorded playback information is calculated, the network said.

Last week the series attracted 4.2 million viewers.

ABC acknowledged “stiff competition” from the CBS series “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior,” which led the hour with 9.1 million viewers, and NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU,” which finished second with 8.3 million total viewers.  

Among adults 18-49, “Off the Map” attracted 1.3 percent of the total TV viewing audience and 3 percent of those who were watching, according to the Nielsen numbers.

“Off the Map” was a midseason replacement that shot 13 episodes at sets the network built in a ravine in Whitmore Village and at Kua­loa Ranch. It ended with a cliffhanger for a key character, but there has been no official word from the network that the series will return in the fall. An ABC spokes­woman said the announcement will likely be made in mid-May.

Maui Electric, Sempra sign wind pact

Sempra Generation has signed a 20-year contract to sell wind energy to Maui Electric Co. from Sempra’s 21-megawatt Auwahi Wind proj­ect on the Ulu­pala­kua Ranch in the southeastern region of Maui.

Sempra said it expects to begin construction on Auwahi Wind in early 2012, creating about 150 local construction jobs at it peak. Only about five positions will be needed to operate the facility after it is completed. The proj­ect is undergoing environmental review by Maui County and state and federal agencies.

When fully operational in late 2012, the company said Auwahi Wind will be capable of generating enough energy to power 10,000 typical Maui homes.

The project will have a battery storage unit that could store as much as 12 megawatt-hours of wind energy generated by the proj­ect’s wind turbines. The stored power will help to smooth fluctuations normally associated with wind power. The contract is subject to approval by the state Public Utilities Commission.

Maui already has 51 megawatts of generating capacity from the Kahe­awa I and Kahe­awa II wind proj­ects developed by First Wind LLC on a ridge above Maalaea.

On the Move

Prudential Locations has promoted Kumiko Burns as its newest partner. She has worked in the real estate industry for more than 20 years. Before her career in real estate, she studied chemical engineering at Toma­ko­mai National College of Technology.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Honolulu has announced the following promotions:
>> Tyler Kurashige to school-based program coordinator from school-based case manager.
>> Jeffrey Mullis to community-based program coordinator from case manager.

Royal Party Rentals has promoted Mike Lukacs to general manager. He has more than five years of industry experience and received his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.