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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Tuesday, November 14, 2000

Canada, New Zealand add Hawaii flights

Canadians and New Zealanders will soon have more opportunities to vacation in Hawaii, thanks to stepped-up airline service.

Air Canada said it will operate up to 22 flights a week this winter direct from points in Canada to Honolulu and Maui.

The airline now has nine flights a week between Vancouver and Honolulu. In mid-December it will add daily Toronto-Honolulu service, three flights a week between Calgary and Honolulu, and three Vancouver-Maui flights a week.

Air New Zealand, meanwhile, said it will step up its Auckland-Honolulu service in April to four flights a week, from two.

Air New Zealand said it is picking up Air Canada passengers, since both are members of the international Star Alliance. However, the airline said it will reduce its connections between Honolulu and Fiji and Honolulu and the Cook Islands. Last week, Japan Airlines said it is increasing its Japan-Hawaii service by 5 percent.

Continental pilots ask to reopen pact

WASHINGTON -- The pilots union at Continental Airlines Inc. said today they have asked the nation's No. 5 airline to open negotiations on a new labor contract 14 months early.

The Independent Association of Continental Pilots claimed that they lag significantly behind the rest of the industry in pay and benefits, said the union of 5,400 pilots.

"This company hasn't hesitated to ask us to downgrade our contract when times were bad," IACP President Capt. Pat Burke said in a letter to Continental Chairman and Chief Executive Gordon Bethune. "It's only logical for it to upgrade our agreement when times are good."

The union asked that the two sides exchange new contract proposals by May 1, instead of the current schedule of July, 2002.

In other news . . .

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. shares sank $3.94 to $83.44 today in Nasdaq trading after the doughnut chain was rated near-term "reduce" in new coverage by analyst Peter Oakes at Merrill Lynch.