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WestJet Airlines eyes Hawaii flights

Canadian low-cost carrier WestJet Airlines Ltd. is exploring plans to start its first flights to Hawaii, though the company would need to buy specialized jets to do it, according to a report yesterday in the Toronto Globe & Mail newspaper.

The Calgary-based carrier flies to nine U.S. cities as well as to Mexico and the Caribbean. It is seeking approval for longer-range aircraft to handle overseas flights.

UH business plan winners named

Risk Assessment Laboratories, which says it has created a test to predict preterm births and diagnose disease, won $45,000 in prizes at this year's University of Hawaii business plan competition.

The company took first prize and also won a separate UH Technology prize.

Professional Nurse Recruiters' won the $15,000 second prize. Hoku International LLC, an agribusiness research and development company, won the $20,000 social enterprise prize.

Seven team presented plans to a panel of judges Tuesday night.

Analyst downgrades Central Pacific

Analyst Brett Rabatin of FTN MidWest Research downgraded Central Pacific Financial Corp. yesterday to "neutral" from "buy."

The state's fourth-largest bank recently reported a higher profit, boosted by its purchase of City Bank. The parent of Central Pacific Bank also raised its second-quarter dividend 19 percent to 19 cents a share.

The dividend will be paid June 17 to shareholders as of May 20.

Hawaiian Air no longer the fullest

Trendy low-fare carrier JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines knocked Hawaiian Airlines from the top of the list of the fullest airplanes in the nation.

JetBlue's planes were 90 percent full last month and Spirit's were 86.5 percent occupied, while Hawaiian's load factor was 86.1 percent. Hawaiian led the carriers last year and during the first two months of this year.

Hawaiian improved its revenue passenger miles, or miles flown by paying passengers, by 3.7 percent in March, mostly because of growth in charter operations.

Verizon's profit jumps 47 percent

Verizon Communications Inc., the largest U.S. telephone company, said first-quarter profit climbed 47 percent as the company added a record number of wireless and high-speed Internet customers. The stock rose 3.6 percent, its largest percentage gain in eight months.

Net income rose to $1.76 billion, or 63 cents a share, from $1.2 billion, or 43 cents, a year earlier, when pension costs hurt profit, New York-based Verizon said. That beat the 60-cent average estimate of 29 analysts in a Thomson Financial survey. Sales rose 6.6 percent to $18.2 billion.

Internet and wireless subscriber gains surpassed analysts' estimates and long-distance revenue surged. Total sales rose faster than at smaller competitors and the local-phone unit had the slowest decline in almost four years. Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg is pushing a $7.62 billion bid for MCI Inc.