BUSINESS BRIEFS
Alaska Air expands Island service
Advertiser Staff and news services
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Alaska Airlines is boosting flights from the Mainland to Hawai'i, while at the same time cutting flights to Mexico, the company announced yesterday.
The carrier said it will inaugurate four-times-weekly service between Oakland, Calif., and Kahului, Maui, Nov. 9, and thrice-weekly service between Oakland and Kona, Hawai'i, Nov. 10.
Additionally, the airline will expand its Seattle-Honolulu schedule from one daily flight to two, beginning July 2, and move up the start of its Portland, Ore.-Maui service to July 3, from Aug. 7. With the additions, Alaska Airlines will have a total of 59 flights a week to Hawai'i.
Alaska is offering one-way fares of $169 between Oakland and Maui, Oakland and Kona, and Portland and Maui, for tickets bought by May 21.
Alaska Airlines said it plans to reduce its summer and fall flights to Mexico by 37 percent beginning July 2 because of falling demand. Travel to Mexico has dropped sharply since the outbreak of swine flu there.
ALOHA PENSION SETTLEMENT OK'D
Aloha Airlines Inc. won court approval to pay $5.5 million to settle claims it failed to protect employee pension plans invested in its own stock.The deal, approved Monday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Lloyd King, resolves U.S. Labor Department allegations that the defunct carrier didn't properly guard the plans' $10 million investment in Aloha Airlines' stock as it lost value.
Almost $4 million of the settlement, involving stock purchased in 2000, will go to the pension fund for the International Association of Machinists, according to court papers. The deal also resolves claims by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., an agency that protects pension programs of bankrupt companies.
GENERAL GROWTH SEEKS $400M LOAN
NEW YORK — General Growth Properties Inc., which filed the biggest real-estate bankruptcy in U.S. history, asked a judge to approve an increased $400 million loan from new lenders to continue operations.General Growth's Hawai'i operations include Ala Moana Center and Ward Centers.
In court documents filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, General Growth said it replaced its earlier lender, William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management LP, with new investors. It didn't give a reason for replacing Pershing, which had agreed to provide a $375 million bankruptcy loan.
