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STI unit selling for $27 million

Optical-imaging firm STI Industries Inc. has reached an agreement to sell its government systems division to BAE Systems North America for $27 million.

The Honolulu-based company said the sale will let it focus on its medical research and development unit and its dual-use technology incubation division.

STI Government Systems is the largest of STI's units and employs 125 people in Hawaii. It provides technology solutions mainly to the Defense Department in the areas of photonics, systems integration and information technologies.

STI Senior Vice President Will Alameida said STI is not selling its proprietary imaging technology, which has been used by the Defense Department in anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasures. STI Medical Systems uses the technology to detect cancer in cells.

Alameida said STI Government Systems would benefit from the greater resources of BAE Systems, a defense electronics, information systems and technology services company. BAE Systems North America employs about 350 people in Hawaii, mainly in work for the Defense Department.

A BAE spokeswoman said the company plans no staffing changes at STI Government Systems.

Marathon has $86.8M impact

The most recent Honolulu Marathon events had an $86.8 million impact on the state, according to a newly released study from Hawaii Pacific University's Travel Industry Management program.

The study found that December's events generated more than $53 million in direct spending from marathoners and race-day walkers from out of state.

A similar 2002 study found that the marathon had a state economic impact of $81.6 million but did not factor in the 5,167 out-of-state participants in the Race Day Walk that year.

In 2003, the events attracted 24,302 out-of-state participants. Included in the study's calculations were 300 volunteers from Japan who paid for their own airfare and accommodations.

HPU professor Jerome Agrusa, who supervised a team of students surveying 1,000 runners and walkers from 18 nations, said the most important finding was that most first-time visitors indicated they would return to Hawaii for reasons other than the Honolulu Marathon.

Hawaiian Air most on-time again

Hawaiian Airlines logged the best on-time service record in the nation for the fourth straight month in February, with nine out of 10 of its flights arriving on schedule.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report for February said 89.6 percent of Hawaiian Airlines flights were on time. Mark Dunkerley, airline president and chief operating officer, credited the airline's Hele On system, which allows passengers to check-in via the Internet or at machines in the airport.

The report compares the service records of 19 airlines that provide the DOT with on-time statistics. Hawaiian is the only carrier in the state that does so.

State holding free financial literary fairs

The state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs is putting on a series of free financial literacy fairs on Oahu this month.

The next fair will be held Friday at Windward Mall, with additional fairs scheduled for Saturday at Pearlridge Shopping Center, April 14 at the University of Hawaii-Manoa Campus Center and April 24 at Kahala Mall. All the fairs will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information, call 586-2622.

Maui Land executive Muller to step down

Maui Land & Pineapple Co. said yesterday that 18-year employee Renata Muller, vice president of grocery sales, will leave her position at the end of this month as part of the company's continuing consolidation and reorganization of its pineapple business.

Muller has been working with the canned product segment in the company's Concord, Calif., sales office. She will be replaced by James Duffy, director of sales at the Concord facility.