BUSINESS BRIEFS
Hawaiian Air flights 89.9% full
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Hawaiian Airlines said its planes were 89.9 percent full in October, up from 86.4 percent full in the same month a year earlier.
The state's largest airline served a total of 607,393 passengers last month — up 15.9 percent from 523,988 in October 2006.
Revenue passenger miles totaled 704,320, up from 598,857 miles last October.
Hawaiian is coming off an exceptionally strong third-quarter, with earnings soaring by more than 150 percent compared with the same period a year earlier.
The state's largest airline said it netted $19.6 million, or 42 cents per share, during the three months ended Sept. 30, 2007, compared with $7.8 million, or 16 cents per share, during the year-earlier period.
HAWAI'I EXEMPT FROM SURCHARGE
United Airlines said flights to and from Hawai'i will be exempt from a fuel surcharge it is imposing to offset record-breaking fuel costs.
The airline announced today that it is adding a $5 one-way and $10 roundtrip fuel surcharge for most domestic fares purchased for travel within 49 states, excluding Hawai'i.
Every dollar increase in the price of crude oil increases United's annual costs by approximately $65 million, the airline said in a news release.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell 91 cents to settle at $95.46 a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's up from $55 a barrel just nine months ago and $20 a barrel six years ago.
Crude prices are within the range of inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980.
SKIRE WILL MANAGE STATE CONTRACTS
The state Department of Transportation has chosen California-based Skire Unifier to manage its statewide $2 billion capital improvement program, according to the company.
Skire Inc., a provider of capital program, integrated workplace and project portfolio management software, today announced that the Airports Division of the Hawai'i Department of Transportation selected Skire Unifier to simplify statewide tracking and reporting for capital improvement contracts and funding sources, as well as improve management for other capital and maintenance projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The agreement marks the third airport agreement in recent months for the company. In Hawai'i, it will be used to track capital projects for 15 commercial and general aviation airports across six islands.
TISSUE GENESIS SIGNS LICENSING DEAL
Honolulu-based Tissue Genesis Inc. said it signed a distribution and licensing agreement with SpineSmith Partners LP.
Austin, Texas-based SpineSmith will market Tissue Genesis' therapeutic cell technologies for the human spine market.
Tissue Genesis will share SpineSmith's revenues from procedures and sales and expects to receive revenue from sales to SpineSmith.
SpineSmith has been granted rights to manufacture, use and sell Tissue Genesis manual cell isolation kits.
"This exciting new relationship with SpineSmith allows Tissue Genesis to move our therapeutic cell technologies into orthopedic markets," said Anton Krucky, president and chief executive of Tissue Genesis. "SpineSmith's extensive expertise with bone-marrow stem cells, in both cell isolation and medical insurance reimbursement, provides a clear avenue of advancement of our adipose- (fat-) derived stem cells into this important market."
