Cheap Tickets to offer
more shares

Star-Bulletin staff

Cheap Tickets Inc., a Honolulu-based seller of discount airline tickets, is planning to sell another 5 million shares of its common stock to the public, at a price and time yet to be determined.

Half the shares will be offered by the company and half by existing shareholders, Cheap Tickets said today. The proceeds will be used for marketing, expansion and technology improvements.

Cheap Tickets, which went public in March, has 20.9 million shares outstanding, about 13 million of which are owned by founder Michael J. Hartley and his wife Sandra. The company's stock, which trades on the Nasdaq, today tumbled $7.50, or 14.6 percent, to close at $44.