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IN HAWAII

Northwest cuts 139 Hawaii pilots

Northwest Airlines Inc. has told the state it plans to lay off 139 Hawaii employees, mostly pilots, because of the impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome on operations.

The company said the layoffs will occur in October and November, according to a filing yesterday with the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The layoffs are expected to be permanent, according to the filing. Union employees involved in the cuts are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Representatives of Northwest and the unions were unavailable for comment late yesterday.

CICO buys Schubert Sanitary

Aiea-based distributor and manufacturer CICO Enterprise Ltd. is buying janitorial sanitary maintenance supply company Schubert Sanitary Supply from a North Carolina firm, according to a press release.

Schubert Sanitary Supply, located on Waiakamilo Road, was founded by Peter K. Schubert in 1963 as a vacuum sales and service firm. Following the purchase, the Schubert operations will move to CICO's facilities. The purchase price was not disclosed.

AmSan Inc., a subsidiary of American Sanitary Inc., acquired Schubert Sanitary Supply in 1999.

CPF ranked high on performance

Central Pacific Financial Corp. has been ranked as one of the top performing banks in the nation for the second consecutive year.

The parent of Central Pacific Bank was selected 23rd out of 50 banks in a study by the ABA Banking Journal. The American Bankers Association publication rated domestic publicly held institutions with assets more than $1 billion as of Dec. 31, 2002. The ranking was based on return on average equity, a key indicator often used to measure performance in the banking industry.

Last year, CPF was ranked 25th out of 100 institutions on its performance in 2001.

Nation Boyd eyes cash from new casino

Boyd Gaming Corp. and MGM Mirage expect their Borgata joint venture, the first casino and hotel to open in Atlantic City, N.J., since 1990, will bring in about $180 million in cash flow.

"The top tier of casinos (in Atlantic City) do about $170 million to $180 million in cash flow and we think we'll be into that top tier" with Borgata, Boyd Gaming Chief Executive Officer William Boyd said in an televised interview with Bloomberg News. "That would be a substantial amount that we share with MGM Mirage."

Boyd and MGM Mirage, which are both based in Las Vegas, opened the casino and hotel yesterday.

Ernst calls SEC move 'outrageous'

Ernst & Young LLP, the fourth-largest accounting firm, said a bid by U.S. securities regulators to bar it from taking new audit clients for six months is an "outrageous" overreaction to an alleged conflict of interest.

The Securities and Exchange Commission staff in May recommended that an SEC administrative law judge suspend Ernst from accepting new audit work because of a business venture it had with audit client PeopleSoft Inc. SEC lawyers also urged that an outside monitor be appointed to oversee Ernst.

In a court filing, Ernst lawyer Stephen Sacks said the firm's business venture with PeopleSoft ended three years ago and that Ernst has since been praised by an outside panel for its procedures to ensure independence of its audits.

The SEC's staff recommendation "misleads the public and the marketplace into thinking that there is something wrong with E&Y's independence procedures today," Sacks wrote in a filing to the judge in Washington.

JetBlue to sell 2.6 million shares

JetBlue Airways Corp., one of nine publicly traded U.S. carriers to post a profit in 2002, plans to sell $128.6 million worth of new shares to buy planes and build airport facilities. The discount airline also said it will start pulling seats to offer more legroom on its flights.

The stock offer includes 2.6 million shares, with 390,000 more available to cover excess demand. JetBlue, the New York-based carrier that first sold stock to the public in April 2002, plans to more than double its 44-plane fleet by the end of 2006. The company's shares have risen 58 percent this year.

Passengers lose bid to sue over blood clots

Britain's Court of Appeal yesterday upheld a lower court ruling that passengers who developed blood clots after long flights cannot sue airlines for compensation.

Three senior judges dismissed an appeal by 24 people of a High Court ruling in December that the potentially fatal condition known as deep-vein thrombosis cannot be classed as an accident under the Warsaw Convention, the international agreement that regulates compensation for death and injury during air travel.

A ruling in favor of the claimants would have led to a class action lawsuit in Britain against 18 airlines, including Northwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, British Airways, Qantas and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Attorneys plan to appeal the ruling to the House of Lords, the final court of appeal in Britain.

SBC may expand EchoStar agreement

SBC Communications Inc., the No. 2 U.S. local-telephone company, may combine some billing and sales operations with satellite-TV provider EchoStar Communications Corp. to help counter competition from cable companies.

SBC is seeking to broaden an existing marketing agreement with EchoStar to make it easier for the companies to sell each other's products, people familiar with the talks said.

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[Hawaii Inc.]

NEW JOBS

>> Classic Resorts has appointed Arlene Crane to association manager for all of the company's Big Island luxury properties including Mauna Lani Point and The Islands at Mauna Lani. She also manages Champion Ridge, The Cape, The Estates and The Villages, all at Mauna Lani Resort. She will assist in property owner relations, contract negotiations, monitoring the financial condition of each association, supervising common area main- tenance and preparing for meetings. She previously administered the affairs of nine timeshare and condominium associations as regional association manager at Shell Management Hawaii Inc. in Kailua-Kona.

>> Richard Foo has been named catering sales manager at the Radisson Waikiki Prince Kuhio. He will develop catering and banqueting operations for the emerging international Chinese travel market to Hawaii and strategic partnerships with wholesalers from Southeast Asia, China and local inbound agencies. He was most recently managing director for Suukee Gourmet Catering Private Limited Resort and Country Club in Singapore.

>> Philip White Architects has appointed Davelyn "Dee Dee" Takushi to administrative assistant and Michelle Lynn Gobrick to designer. Takushi was most recently an administrative assistant and office manager at Ferragamo Hawaii Inc. Gobrick previously sold environmentally sustainable building materials at Eco-Products in Colorado. 

>> Lester Morikawa has been hired as an account executive at NetEnterprise. He was most recently a Boise Office Solutions corporate account executive and has had similar positions at Inacom, Integrated Computer Technology and ComputerLand. The company has also added Justin Ito to its accounting staff. He is responsible for accounts payable.