BUSINESS BRIEFS
ATA expanding California routes
Advertiser Staff and News Services
ATA Airlines Inc. said it will expand its Hawai'i-to-Mainland service with four new daily flights to California.
Starting April 27, the Indianapolis-based airline will add daily flights between Honolulu and Los Angeles and Ontario, Calif.
The airline, which plans to emerge from bankruptcy next month, also will begin four daily flights from Oakland, Calif., to Honolulu, Hilo and Maui.
The Oakland routes, which include two daily flights to Honolulu, replace the airline's daily service between San Francisco and Honolulu and Hilo. ATA operates seven daily flights between the West Coast and Hawai'i, which will grow to 11 daily flights.
"Even during the most challenging times in this industry, our Hawai'i customers have demonstrated their loyalty through strong and repeat business with our airline," said ATA's CEO John Denison.
NIKE CEO QUITS OVER CONFLICT
BEAVERTON, Ore. — Nike Inc., the world's largest athletic-shoe company, yesterday said CEO William D. Perez resigned over differences with company founder and chairman Philip Knight and was replaced by Mark Parker, co-president of the Nike brand.
Perez, who joined the Beaverton-based company in December 2004 after a long career with S.C. Johnson, resigned by mutual agreement with the Nike board, Nike said in a statement.
Perez said in the statement that he and Knight "weren't entirely aligned on some aspects of how to best lead the company's long-term growth. It became obvious to me that the long-term interests of the company would be best served by my resignation."
BLACKBERRY APPEAL DENIED
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear an appeal from the maker of the BlackBerry in the long-running battle over patents for the popular handheld wireless e-mail device.
The high court's refusal to hear Canada-based Research In Motion Ltd.'s appeal means that a trial judge in Richmond, Va., could impose an injunction against the company and block BlackBerry use among many of its owners in the U.S.
The justices had been asked to decide on whether U.S. patent law is technologically out of date in the age of the Internet and the global marketplace.
