BUSINESS BRIEFS
Hawaiian Air planes less full
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Hawaiian Airlines said today its planes were 85.7 percent full in August, down from 90.1 percent in the same month a year earlier.
Despite the decline, the airline's overall passenger count was up for the month. The state's largest airline said interisland and West Coast flights carried a total of 548,169 passengers last month, up 3.1 percent from the year-earlier's 531,934.
The rise in passenger count comes amid new competition in the interisland market with the launching of Mesa Air Group Inc.'s go! airline June 9. Last month, go! said its planes were 64.5 percent filled in August, down from 73.9 percent in July.
FUROR OVER HP ACTION GROWS
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Congress and federal investigators yesterday entered the fray surrounding Hewlett-Packard Co.'s possibly illegal probe of media leaks, as the company's board met to discuss the fate of its embattled chairwoman.
With the FBI, the U.S. attorney for Northern California and the House Energy and Commerce Committee all joining the scandal swirling around HP's board of directors, the resignation of Chairwoman Patricia Dunn seemed likely, one expert said.
"The right thing to do now is for her to step down, clear the air and let the company carry on," said Roger Kay, who follows HP as president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a market research firm.
LARGEST IRS SETTLEMENT: $3.4B
WASHINGTON — Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay $3.4 billion in the largest tax settlement in IRS history, resolving a dispute from the 1980s over the multinational company's U.S. profits.
The disagreement concerned how much of the profits from certain drugs, particularly the ulcer and heartburn medication Zantac, should be attributed to U.S. subsidiaries of GlaxoSmithKline PLC and, therefore, subject to tax. Glaxo said it had set money aside for the dispute, and the settlement will not have a significant effect on its reported earnings.
