Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Monday, October 19, 1998
Canadian Air increases Oahu-Auckland service
Canadian Airlines Corp. is adding three flights a week to the nonstop Honolulu-Auckland service its Fiji-based partner Air Pacific flies, bringing the service to daily. Canadian markets the service as a Canada-New Zealand trip with a stopover, if the customer likes, in Hawaii. It is fed by daily nonstop flights between Toronto and Honolulu and 13 flights a week between Vancouver and Honolulu. The travelers board Air Pacific in Honolulu for the flights to Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city. Canadian Airlines entered the joint service with Air Pacific in December.
Tour firm again offers pass for unlimited trips
Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays is bringing back its AirPass for 1999, allowing those who pay $1,299 to take an unlimited number of round trips between Honolulu and San Francisco or Los Angeles next year.The company first put its AirPass into effect for 1998, as an incentive to attract more customers for its mainland-Hawaii travel packages, but also made it available to Hawaii residents for air travel only. The company said the average AirPass customer made 7.5 round trips this year, showing big savings over regular air fares.
The number of passes being issued is limited. There also are advance-booking requirements and the passes can't be used on some holidays. Pleasant Hawaiian put 6,000 passes on the market for 1998 and said it sold all of them. The number for 1999 travel was not disclosed. For more information on the AirPass program call 1-800-242-9244.
FedEx pilots' union authorizes strike vote
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Leaders of the union for Federal Express Corp. pilots voted unanimously to seek strike authorization from members, which could mean a walkout during the package delivery company's Christmas rush.Both sides say they hope to avoid a strike. In the meantime, it's "business as usual," FedEx spokesman Greg Rossiter said yesterday. Ballots will be sent this week to the 3,200 members of the FedEx Pilots Association. The union hopes to complete balloting by Nov. 20. If two-thirds of the union pilots are willing to walk out, the union could call a strike during December, the company's busiest season.
McKesson offers to buy HBO & Co.; stocks fall
SAN FRANCISCO -- McKesson Corp. and HBO & Co. shares tumbled after McKesson's proposed $14 billion acquisition of HBO left investors wondering how the combined company's sales forces could package products as different as drugs and computer services. McKesson, the No. 1 U.S. drug wholesaler, fell $12.69, or 14 percent, to $76, while HBO, the largest software supplier to the health-care industry, fell $4.371/2, also 14 percent, to $25.19. McKesson plans to give HBO shareholders 0.37 McKesson shares for each HBO share. McKesson said it's buying HBO to give it access to the Atlanta-based company's higher-margin products and to expand to keep ahead of fast-growing rivals like Cardinal Health Inc."It doesn't really make sense," said Ed Ho, an analyst with AIM Advisors Inc. "McKesson hasn't had any experience with HBO's line of business and vice versa. The synergies just aren't there."
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