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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, September 18, 2000

Hawaiian's business climbed in August

Hawaiian Airlines Inc. said it carried 583,637 passengers last month, a 6 percent increase from 550,748 in August 1999. The count includes its interisland, mainland-Hawaii and Hawaii-South Pacific routes.

The airline's overall load factor, the percentage of available seats occupied by paying passengers, slipped to 83.1 percent last month from 83.7 percent in the year-earlier month, but there were many more seats available.

Hawaiian expanded its overall capacity to 650.7 million available seat miles last month, 17 percent more than the 556.9 million reported for August 1999. (One available seat mile is the ability to carry one passenger one mile.)

Through the first eight months of this year, Hawaiian carried 4.3 million passengers, up 11.4 percent from 3.86 million in the year-earlier period.

Isle investor group to reward best deal

The Hawaii Venture Capital Association will present its first "Deal of the Year Award" on Dec. 5 to a business that has attracted venture capital.

Entrees, due Nov. 1, will be judged on total size of the funding, the business opportunity created, and the potential to boost Hawaii's business landscape.

Nominations can be emailed to spencer@medsurf.com.

The award meeting will start at 11:30 a.m. at the Plaza Club at Pioneer Plaza. To register, call 262-7329.

Digital Island countersues Akamai

SAN FRANCISCO -- Digital Island Inc., a maker of software that speeds data on the Internet, said it is suing rival Akamai Technologies Inc. for patent infringement, about a week after Akamai filed a similar suit against Digital Island.

Akamai filed a lawsuit Sept. 13 claiming patent infringement against San Francisco-based Digital Island in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, Akamai spokesman Jeff Young said.

Digital Island got its start in Hawaii in the mid-1990s but moved to San Francisco in 1999. It operates a network center on Bishop Street. Akamai has no island connection other than its Hawaiian name.

Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai said Digital Island is infringing on a patent awarded last month to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which licenses that technology to Akamai. Digital Island said it has "patent pending claims for the same inventions claimed by MIT" that predate MIT's patent claim.