October 2006 Archives
Hawaiian Airlines has announced the appointment of Donald Sealey as vice president of corporate audit.
Hawaiian Holdings Inc. (Amex: HA) said Monday that Sealey was a certified public accountant with 24 years of diversified, private industry financial experience featuring a decade in accounting and auditing for airlines and would have direct oversight of compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley act.
Hawaii inconvenienced but emerges virtually unscathed from October 15th earthquake. One day after being rocked by an earthquake Hawai‘i is letting the world know that it is open and ready for business.
"We continue to welcome visitors to our state," said Marsha Wienert, tourism liaison for the Hawaii State Governor's office. "The quake caused quite a bit of apprehension yesterday but this morning Hawai‘i is largely back to business as usual. There is no widespread damage and no loss of life or serious injury. We have made a speedy return to normalcy."
The 7:07 a.m. Sunday morning quake measured 6.7-magnitude. It was centered under the ocean off the northwest coast of Hawai‘i's Big Island and was felt on all the major islands. A 5.8 magnitude quake followed seven minutes later and numerous smaller aftershocks were registered over the next few hours.
The first quake immediately triggered power failures that lasted most of the day on the Big Island, Maui, and O‘ahu.
The loss of electrical power caused disruptions at airports that resulted in flight delays and cancellations of some transpacific flights into and out of the Islands. Electrical power was restored to most airports by early afternoon. Honolulu International Airport, which saw the most delays in service, was online again by
5:45 p.m. All affected communities throughout the islands had electrical service restored by midnight Sunday.
"All visitor accommodations are open for business statewide and airlines are telling us that transpacific flights and flights around the islands are generally back to normal," said John Monahan, president and CEO of the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau. "There may be some minor delays as airlines adjust for yesterday's interruptions and we advise passengers to reconfirm their departure times prior to going to the airport," he said.
"Despite the inconveniences caused by the power outage, visitors to the state were generally in high spirits yesterday as residents and visitor industry employees jumped in to make their day as good as possible," said Monahan. "Hawai‘i's spirit of aloha shines especially bright in these circumstances," he said.
Damage assessments were still being made Monday morning, but the effects of the quake continue to appear minimal.All major highways statewide are open.Hotels and other accommodations that were closest to the quake on the Big Island remain open for business, although some have reported light damage.
The quake generated a small seismic wave of three inches in height at Kawaihae Harbor on the Big Island according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center on O‘ahu.
THE SEIBU GROUP has put the 1,880-acre Makena Resort on Maui on the market. The property includes the Maui Prince Hotel, two 18-hole golf courses, several condominiums and a substantial amount of undeveloped acreage. No interruption in operations is anticipated during the sale period, nor does the sale mean a change of management at the Maui Prince.
Hawaii is still getting more visitors than last year from the Mainland this month, but the extra visitors aren't flying to Honolulu.
Instead, Hawaii hoteliers are seeing an increase in traffic to the Big Island and Kauai. Traffic to Maui and Oahu has been flat, or worse.
Visit Kauai and the Big Island through Travel-Hawaii.com
Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa and the hotel workers' union have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract for more than 1,500 Waikiki employees. The union says it's a template for the other hotels.
Hilton employees have been working without a contract since June 30. The term or length of the proposed new contract wasn't disclosed at a press conference Monday.
Aqua Hotels & Resorts says the addition of the 740-room Island Colony doubles its room roster as the Waikiki boutique chain expands.
Aqua is targeting younger visitors to Waikiki, offering a lower-priced "Aqua Lite" range of properties while branding renovated properties as "Aqua Boutique" hotels.
A few Hawaii Aqua properties are:
ALOHA AIRLINES has added Korean Air and Air New Zealand as interline e-ticketing partners. Aloha now has such agreements with 13 airlines. Both carriers can issue boarding passes for interline connections to Aloha flights.
Make your flight arrangements at Travel-Hawaii.
Even while down from last year, Japan visitor traffic continues to dominate Hawaii arrivals from international locales away from North America.
Hawaii welcomes 4,000 arrivals from Japan most days, but arrivals from countries other than Japan and Canada have topped 1,000 only four times in the past three weeks.
Qantas' economy airline, JetStar, is starting service between Australia and Honolulu staring Dec. 27. In addition to three weekly flights from Sydney, Jetstar is offering two per week from Melbourne starting Dec. 29.
