Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Wednesday, March 15, 2000

Hawaiian Air sees more passengers

Hawaiian Airlines Inc. said today that it carried 491,170 passengers in February, a 12 percent increase from 438,478 in February 1999.

Its systemwide load factor, the percentage of available seats that were occupied by paying passengers, was 24.4 percent last month, down 2.6 percentage points from 77.4 percent in February 1999, but the drop was explained by a big increase in capacity, the airline said.

The airline had 552.1 million available seat miles last month, a 24.4 percent increase from the previous February's 443.8 million available seat miles. One seat mile is one seat available for one mile of service.

AMR to spin off Sabre Holdings

FORT WORTH, Texas -- AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines, is spinning off its 83 percent stake in Sabre Holdings Corp. today in a $5.75 billion transaction to free the largest travel reservation company to negotiate contracts with more airlines and expand Internet services. AMR will distribute 107.4 million shares of Sabre stock to AMR shareholders after the close of trading, Bloomberg News reported. The shares will be distributed at a rate of about 0.7 Sabre share for each AMR share. AMR said in December that it would spin off Sabre, removing a hurdle the travel company faced in trying to negotiate with American's rivals.

Pacific exchange to cut trading floors

NEW YORK -- In a move that could signal the future of U.S. stock markets, the Pacific Stock Exchange plans to close its two West Coast trading floors and merge with electronic marketplace Archipelago.

The deal announced last night represents the first time a traditional U.S. stock exchange will discard the centuries-old practice of completing stock trades face-to-face auction-style on a trading floor in favor of a fully electronic system. The deal also signals the first combination in the United States between a bricks and mortar exchange and a so-called electronic communications network, or ECN, where trades are matched entirely by computer.