Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Friday, June 20, 1997

Oahu college gets
reservation system

Hawaii Business College is installing a System One Amadeus computer reservations system to teach students how to make reservations for travel, accommodations and car rentals.

The downtown Honolulu business school said the system will be online later this month and will be used during the summer quarter now in session.

Students will be able to go through all the motions of making bookings, using the same constantly updated information that is used by about 32,000 travel agents worldwide.

Tiana Johnsen, a spokeswoman for the school, said System One, which is partly owned by Continental Airlines, agreed to let Hawaii Business College be the only island school with the system. The University of Hawaii School of Travel Industry Management uses United Airlines' Apollo system.

Airport ground broken
for Continental facility

Ground has been broken at Honolulu Airport for Continental Airlines' $24 million jumbo-jet maintenance facility, a project conceived just seven months ago.

At the ground-breaking ceremony yesterday, Gov. Ben Cayetano and Continental President Greg Brenneman both marveled at the quickness with which the administration, the Legislature and Continental put the deal together.

Substantial tax breaks approved by the Legislature helped Hawaii snatch the facility away from Guam where Continental had planned to build it. "Getting the tax breaks was absolutely critical to building this facility. It would not economically justify itself without the support we got from the state of Hawaii," Brenneman said.

Construction is expected to begin within two months and the 112,000-square-foot facility is expected to be operating by this time next year. It will create 100 construction jobs at the outset and once finished will provide 110 new high-paying aviation mechanics and technician jobs, Cayetano said.

House panel approves
banking overhaul bill

WASHINGTON -- A House panel today narrowly approved legislation that would create the most drastic reshaping of U.S. financial laws in 60 years and tear down the barrier between banking and commerce.

To cushion the impact on consumers, the measures would require banks to disclose whether their financial products are federally guaranteed and to sell them in a separate area.

The 28-26 vote by the House Banking Committee cut across party lines.

If the bill becomes law, insurance companies and securities firms could combine and offer consumers "one-stop shopping" for financial services.

The panel sent the legislation to the full House, where prospects for passage were unclear. The committee adopted far-reaching measures earlier this week allowing banks and commercial companies to combine.