Bankoh parent concludes Southern California sale

Pacific Century Financial Corp., parent of Bank of Hawaii, has concluded the sale of assets of its Pacific Century Bank subsidiary on the mainland to U.S. Bancorp.

In the deal first announced in June, U.S. Bancorp bought 20 PCB branches in Southern California and the bank's retail, small business and commercial accounts. The buyer picked up about $700 million in deposits, $570 million in assets and 300 employees.

Michael E. O'Neill, Pacific Century Financial chairman and CEO, said the sale was part of the company's plan to concentrate on its core markets -- Hawaii, the Western Pacific and Samoa. The transaction was formally completed at midnight Friday, Pacific Coast time. Pacific Century has said the sale and coming liquidation of the rest of PCB's assets would free up capital of approximately $250million.

American Air to begin daily L.A.-Kauai flights

American Airlines will launch a direct daily Los Angeles-Kauai service Dec. 15. This is in addition to American's takeover last week of TWA's daily Los Angeles-Kona service. American announced earlier that it will add a Los Angeles-Honolulu flight Oct. 1, bringing its service on that route to three flights a day. On Nov. 1, American will add a Los Angeles-Maui nonstop, bringing that service to two flights a day.

The new flights will use American's added-legroom 176-seat Boeing 757 aircraft. American will continue its three nonstop flights a day between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Honolulu and its daily nonstop Chicago-Honolulu flight.

In addition, American has Saturday-only service on the Los Angeles-Honolulu and Los Angeles-Maui routes. When all the new services are in place, American will have 13 mainland-Hawaii flights a day.