Cheap Tickets to close 110-worker LA call center

Cheap Tickets Inc. said it will close its 110-employee Los Angeles call center, keeping only its four biggest telephone reservation centers -- Honolulu; Tampa, Fla.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Lakewood, Calif.

The Tampa center, which currently employs 180, has the capacity for more than 400 reservation sales agents. The company said that with Tampa fully operating, it no longer needs two centers in California.

Los Angeles employees will have a chance to try out for other jobs in the company, Cheap Tickets said. The company said the decision to close the Los Angeles center is not related to the pending sale of the company to New York-based Cendant Corp. Cheap Tickets, which has more than 1,000 employees, said it will take a $1.7 million one-time restructuring charge in the third quarter related to the call-center consolidation.

Hawaii retail sales by check up 5.4 percent

Boosted by back-to-school sales and federal tax rebates, Hawaii retailers enjoyed a healthy 5.4 percent increase in check transactions last month, according to a national survey.

TeleCheck Services Inc., a Houston-based check acceptance company, said that Hawaii's increase was the largest in the nation on a percentage basis, outpacing Wisconsin, which enjoyed a 4.2 percent increase for August, compared to a year earlier.

Minnesota and Florida both enjoyed a 4 percent gain in check transactions for the month. Nationwide, check transactions -- which account for about a third of all retail purchases -- were up 3 percent last month. William Ford, TeleCheck senior economic advisor, said retail sales nationwide benefited from interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and the Bush administration's tax rebate.

In other news ...

Dearborn, Mich. >> Ford Motor Co. is recalling about 777,740 Windstar minivans from the 1999 through 2001 model years because of problems with air-conditioner wiring and windshield-wiper motors. About 525,164 Windstars built at Oakville, Ontario, from April 1998 through December 2000 have wiring in a rear auxiliary air-conditioning system that could overheat and cause a fire, said Mike Vaughn, a spokesman for the second-largest automaker. No fires or injuries have been reported, he said. Those Windstars, as well as others built at Oakville through June 2001 for a total of 777,742 minivans, may let water, salt and windshield-washer fluid into the wiper-motor housing, causing the wipers to work intermittently or not at all, Vaughn said.