Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Friday, November 21, 1997

Aloha wants mediator
in pilot contract talks

Star-Bulletin staff

Aloha Airlines has asked federal mediators to step into its contract negotiations with the union representing its 180 pilots.

The airline said it has had 56 negotiating sessions and its most recent offer was a 4.5 percent pay increase and a profit-sharing payout of up to $2,300 a year per pilot, in exchange for "modest changes" in work rules.

The Air Line Pilots Association said Aloha wants the pilots to increase their work load to 90 hours flying a month, from 80.

"They're offering us more money to work more. Therefore it's not a raise at all," said Kyle Thompson, a co-pilot and secretary-treasurer of the ALPA unit at Aloha.

The union has a contract but it became open for amendments in October 1996 and the two sides have been unable to reach agreement on new language since then, he said.

Glenn Zander, Aloha's president and chief executive officer, said the airline filed for federal mediation yesterday.

"We believe Aloha's approach is both fair to its pilot work force and consistent with the need to keep prices affordable," he said.

First Hawaiian plans
another stock buyback

First Hawaiian Inc. plans to buy back an additional 1.5 million shares of its common stock, nearly 5 percent of the shares outstanding. Purchases will be made on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions.

The company, parent of First Hawaiian Bank and other financial business in Hawaii as well as Pacific One Bank in Oregon, Idaho and Washington, recently completed a buyback of 1.6 million shares that the directors authorized in 1995.

Walter A. Dods Jr., chairman and chief executive officer, said the buyback is a strategy to increase value for shareholders.

Alaska-Hawaii travel firm
increasing charter flights

Hawaiian Vacations, which has been selling air service between Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu since 1994, is boosting its service with added flights.

The company, which charters 300-passenger DC-10 jets and crews from Hawaiian Airlines, flies the route once a week and adds two flights a week during its peak winter period. The airline has added a second weekly flight and starting next month and running through mid-March there will be three flights a week.

Finance Factors helps
some isle home buyers

Finance Factors plans to help a limited number of eligible first-time home buyers in Hawaii save for down payments.

Under a program sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, the company said yesterday it will contribute $3 for every $1 saved - up to $5,000 per family.

Finance Factors received $70,000 from the federal bank for the Home$tart Savings Program.

Buyers must be Hawaii residents earning 80 percent of the area's median income; open a savings account at Finance Factors by May 31; complete a home-buyer education course; and save for at least 10 months. Buyers also must get financing for the purchase from Finance Mortgage, a Finance Factors unit. For more information, call 532-7039 or 532-7031.