HAWAIIAN AIRLINES CELEBRATES
FIRST PHOENIX FLIGHT

DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM Passengers emerging from Gate 30 at Honolulu Airport were greeted with leis and Hawaiian music yesterday after Hawaiian Airlines' first direct flight from Phoenix. The new route will generate an additional 1,764 seats per week to the state. The daily flight leaves Phoenix at 10:45 a.m. and arrives in Honolulu at 2:20 p.m. The return flight departs Honolulu at 10:15 p.m. and arrives in Phoenix the following morning at 7:15 a.m. The schedules of both flights will be adjusted Oct. 27 to accommodate the change in daylight-saving time.

HAWAII

Florida time-share firm purchases Kona resort

Florida-based time-share firm Fairfield Resorts Inc., which recently entered the Hawaii market, has made its second isle acquisition with the purchase of 76 units at the 154-unit Royal Sea Cliffs Resort in Kona.

Fairfield bought the condominium-style units from Royal Sea Cliff LLC, and plans some $3 million in renovations. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The Royal Sea Cliffs is managed by Outrigger Enterprises Inc., which in July announced a joint venture in which Fairfield will market time-share travel packages using Outrigger properties. Fairfield later bought the Kona Hawaiian Village, a bungalow-style time-share near Kona, from Alan Dickler.

Honolulu food company recalls pork dumpling

Honolulu-based Golden Coin Food Industries voluntarily recalled 60 cases of its fully cooked pork dumplings that may have been contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, a bacteria that can cause listeriosis, an uncommon but potentially fatal disease.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service, the product, call "Golden Coin Shio Mai Pork Hash Dumpling Fully Cooked Ready to Serve" was produced on Oct. 2, distributed on Oahu and also sent to Maui. The 15-pound cases were marked with a case code 276.

Golden Coin plant manager Joseph Uy said all 60 cases already had been intercepted and returned to the company.

"They're back in the plant ready for USDA disposal," he said.

Virtual window shopping starts on Oceanic digital

The local on-demand shopping information channel created by Honolulu-based Broadband iTV has been officially launched on Oceanic Time Warner Cable's digital channel 326.

Billing itself as the nation's first interactive cable channel offering on-demand videos and shopping information, it has been increasingly rolled out across Oceanic's service areas since its "soft launch" in late summer.

Companies from the travel, automotive and real estate sectors have purchased slots on the channel and receive unlimited views for the duration of the contract with BBiTV.

BBiTV channel 326 is expected to be available to Oceanic digital subscribers on the Big Island and Maui in 2003.

MAINLAND

Lucent to eliminate another 10,000 jobs

MURRAY HILL, N.J. >> Lucent Technologies Inc., the largest maker of equipment for telephone companies, announced plans yesterday to cut an additional 10,000 jobs and forecast a larger-than-expected quarterly loss, signaling that its problems were far from over.

Lucent, which had more than 123,000 employees as recently as two years ago, expects to have a work force of only about 35,000 by the end of next year as it seeks to slow its depletion of cash.

The Murray Hill, N.J.-based company will take a $4 billion charge to reflect the costs associated with the cuts and the sinking fortunes of its pension fund.

Lucent said the job cuts would be in the United States as well as in other countries.

The company said its loss for the quarter ended Sept. 30 would be about 65 cents a share, excluding charges and other one-time items. That compares with an earlier forecast of a loss of 45 cents a share. The quarterly loss will be the ninth consecutive for Lucent.

Lucent's stock price, down nearly 90 percent this year, reflects the uncertainty about the company's future. The stock price fell an additional 12 cents yesterday to 58 cents as senior executives said they did not rule out a move like a reverse stock split to avoid a delisting by the New York Stock Exchange.