HAWAII
Continental brings back the big guns
Continental Airlines today began bringing its new Boeing 777 aircraft to Hawaii, shifting to the 283-passenger jet for one of its two daily Houston-Honolulu nonstop flights. Since last October, the airline has been using the 235-seat Boeing 767-400 for all its Hawaii flights, including the Houston service.Bringing in the bigger aircraft allows Continental to meet increased passenger demand, said Ron Wright, managing director of Continental-Hawaii. The 767-400s, which replaced the McDonnell-Douglas DC10s in the Continental fleet, are also relatively new and the airline's total widebody jet fleet has an average age of only 1.8 years, Wright said.
MAINLAND
Job-seekers, meet spellcheck
Plenty of people who are between jobs are mailing resumes by the dozens. Here's some advice from the people who peruse them: Use a spellchecker.In a survey of 2,500 employment recruiters, sloppy spelling was mentioned by most as one of their top 20 pet peeves.
Among the others: resumes with pictures, graphics and useless Web links; resumes that aren't sent as simple text attachments to an e-mail; inaccurate or omitted contact information; and information about a past employer with no explanation of where or in which industry the applicant worked.
The survey was conducted by ResumeDoctor.com, a resume preparation firm.
Powell picked as the top boss
He might be president, but plenty of workers doubt they'd want George W. Bush as a boss.In a survey for National Boss Day, the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. asked people visiting the company's Web site to rank the following as the best bosses to have: Bush, Colin Powell, Bill Gates, Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey.
Powell won the question, with 37 percent of 497 people choosing him as the one they'd prefer as a boss. Gates came in second, with 25 percent. Bush was third, (19 percent), slightly ahead of Winfrey (16 percent).
Stewart finished last: 2 percent said they'd like to have her as a boss.
American Express net more than doubles
New York >> American Express Co. said third-quarter profit more than doubled as customers boosted credit card spending from the period last year that included the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.The fourth-biggest U.S. credit card issuer said net income climbed to $687 million, or 52 cents a share, from $298 million, or 22 cents, from last year's third quarter. The results beat the 51-cents average forecast of analysts polled by Thomson First Call. American Express shares rose as much as 5.8 percent.
Chief Executive Kenneth Chenault is relying on consumer spending as corporate clients hold back on travel and entertaining in the weak economy, according to a Bloomberg News report. American Express Financial Advisors, the asset management unit that contributed more than a third of annual earnings in the late 1990s, added 22 percent in the quarter as mutual fund performance lagged peers.
"I wasn't even hoping for that kind of kick" in earnings, said Forrest Mervine, who helps manage $1.2 billion in assets, including American Express shares, at Philadelphia Corp. "We intend to buy more shares."
Gas prices holding steady nationwide
CAMARILLO, Calif. >> Gas prices held steady over the past two weeks, as the nation continues to enjoy relative price stability, an industry analyst said yesterday.The average price for gasoline nationally, including all grades and taxes, was $1.49, up less than a penny since an Oct. 11 survey, according to the Lundberg Survey of 8,000 stations nationwide.
Prices held steady for six months starting April 5, then increased about 4 cents since September. But prices have remained relatively stable, analyst Trilby Lundberg said.
"Speaking quite short term, substantial increases are unlikely and may not occur at all," said Lundberg.
"Prices for crude oil have declined in the past few day," Lundberg said.
The national weighted average price of gasoline, including taxes, at self-serve pumps Friday was about $1.46 per gallon for regular, $1.56 for mid-grade and $1.65 for premium.
WORLD
Sugar trade key to free trade talks
A Western Hemisphere trade deal might not be worth negotiating if the United States refuses to open its market to key agricultural commodities such as sugar, a Brazilian government official said today.Trade officials from the United States and 33 other countries in North and South America, all except Cuba, will meet Friday in Quito, Ecuador, to discuss the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas idea.
The goal is to establish the trade zone by 2005, although less developed countries might be given more time to lower their import barriers than others. But some U.S. agriculture groups, such as sugar producers, are opposed to bilateral or regional trade agreements that would mandate more open markets. Instead, they want new sugar trade rules to be established on a global basis.
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[ HAWAII INC. ]
NEW JOBS
>> Dean Hirabayashi has joined A&B Properties Inc. as project manager for acquisitions. He will be responsible for identifying and analyzing new investments and acquisitions. Hirabayashi was most recently vice president of GE Capital Real Estate and prior to that he was assistant vice president at First Hawaiian Bank and manager at Bank of America. A&B Properties is is real-estate development and management subsidiary of Alexander & Baldwin Inc.
PROMOTIONS
>> Derek Higashi has been named new general manager of Parts Center Hawaii Inc. He will be responsible for the four NAPA Auto Parts stores operated by the company on the Big Island. He has worked for the company in various operational capacities since 1995.>> Bank of Hawaii has promoted three new senior vice presidents from vice president positions: American Samoa District Manager David A. Buehler; Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Country Manager John Sheather; and Guam District Manager Robert D. Yee. Buehler guides the overall operations at the bank's three American Samoa branches and strategic growth initiatives relating to the area. Sheather leads the bank's long-term strategies for growth in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. Yee manages long-term strategies to grow the bank's retail market share in the Territory of Guam.
RECOGNITION
>> Deborah Lau Okamura of Honolulu won the Organization of Chinese Americans Inc. Corporate Achievement Award for her volunteerism and professional contributions to the Asian-American community. She is Asian markets group manager for Verizon and implements national marketing programs for Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino and Japanese customers. The organization is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to securing the rights of all Asian-Americans.