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[ FAST FACTS HAWAII ]

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Hawaiian's planes 87.4 percent full

Hawaiian Airlines said it had the nation's fullest planes in November and during the first 11 months of this year, though the carrier's passenger count dropped by 6.3 percent last month.

Hawaiian carried 434,874 people on scheduled flights in November, compared with 464,047 in the same month a year earlier. Still, the airline's miles flown by paying passengers -- or revenue passenger miles -- increased 5.7 percent, outstripping a 2.1 percent growth in capacity during the month.

That boosted Hawaiian's load factor to 87.4 percent last month from 84.6 percent in the year earlier.

JetBlue Airways had the second-fullest planes with an 83.8 percent load factor, according to Aviation Daily statistics cited by Hawaiian.

County: do nothing, get something

Many Big Island homeowners do not need to file a claim to receive a recently passed 20 percent exemption for property taxes, the county said yesterday.

Those who already have a home exemption claim on file will automatically get the extra exemption, which is based on a home's assessed value. A new claim only is necessary for those who have purchased a new home or started renting or conducting business.

Crude prices plunge $3 a barrel

Crude futures fell by nearly $3 a barrel yesterday as traders anticipated warmer weather in the U.S. Northeast later in the week and responded to weekend snowstorms in the U.S. Midwest that kept motorists off the road.

Traders brushed off any impact from the massive earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, where the government oil company and Exxon Mobil Corp., which produces and process natural gas there, said operations and exports were continuing as normal after brief power outages.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery plunged $2.86, or 6 percent, to settle at $41.32 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Ex-chief would get $1.37M a year

Fannie Mae, the largest source of money for the mortgage market, said former Chief Executive Officer Franklin Raines will receive benefits including an annual payment of $1.37 million after his ouster last week.

Raines will receive deferred compensation of about $8.7 million and lifetime medical and dental coverage, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As of Dec. 21, he had vested options for 1.63 million shares, and is slated to receive vested options on an additional 368,819 shares for what the Washington-based company called his retirement.

Raines, 55, and Chief Financial Officer J. Timothy Howard were let go after the SEC and the company's federal regulator said Fannie Mae wrongly accounted for hedging transactions on its mortgage holdings, used improper "cookie jar" reserves and deferred expenses in 1998 so executives could get their maximum bonuses. The regulator has instructed Fannie Mae to withhold benefits pending its review of the compensation.