Electricity rates to hold steady in May

The typical household bill on Oahu in May should hold steady, at an average of $117.45, just 49 cents lower than it was in April, according to rates issued by Hawaiian Electric Co.

On Maui the typical bill will be $139.34, down 0.5 percent from $140.13 in April. Those rates do not include Molokai and Lanai. On the Big Island, however, the typical bill will average $185.47 this month, which is $1.47 more—or 0.8 percent higher than it was in April.

The effective rates, which include fuel and other charges, for May are 18.15 cents a kilowatt-hour on Oahu, 21.88 cents/kwh for Maui and 29.07 cents/kwh for the Big Island.

Rates vary on different isles due to different sources of fuel and storage capacities.

Hawaiian Air traffic fell 5.1% in April

Hawaiian Airlines' passenger traffic dropped 5.1 percent in April from the year-earlier period that was characterized by a surge in passengers following the sudden collapse of Aloha and ATA airlines.

The number of passengers flying Hawaiian last month was 681,751, down from 718,767 a year ago. The load factor, or percentage of seats filled, decreased 3.6 percentage points to 84.4 percent from 88 percent.

Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, slipped 2.5 percent to 667.4 million from 684.7 million. Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, edged up 790.4 million from 777.8 million.

For the year, Hawaiian's passenger traffic is up 9.2 percent from the first four months of 2008.

Matson receives excellence award

Matson Navigation Co. has received the Toyota Logistics Excellence award for outstanding achievement for the second year in a row.

The award for 2008 honored Matson for its role in successfully providing sailing and delivery priorities for Toyota's roll-out program for the company's new Venza. Matson worked closely with Toyota's distributor in Hawaii, Servco Pacific, to ensure that Toyota's Hawaii distribution requirements were addressed, particularly for dealers doing business on the neighbor islands.

China bans Hawaii pork imports

China, the world's largest consumer of pork, banned imports of the meat from Hawaii, Oklahoma and Washington, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service said yesterday. Previously, China suspended pork imports from 38 other states.

In addition, Malaysia, Armenia and Bahrain are halting imports of pork from the U.S., bringing the number of nations enacting restrictions since the swine flu outbreak to 16, the USDA said in a separate report.

On The Move

Aloha Technical Solutions has promoted Jackie Branch to vice president of operations from director of operations. She was an IT industry veteran since 1998 and previously an operations manager for the direct sales team at CompUSA in Hawaii.

Island Air has awarded Robson Ah Puck with the Jamie Wagatsuma Award, an outstanding student explorer, which is named after a former pilot of Aloha and Island Air who served as head adviser in Aloha's program and died from cancer in November 2007. Ah Puck and 17 others—Sonny Ah Puck III, Miana Anama, Sean Bresnan, Fernando Corrales, Punahele Dalde, Raycherie DePonte, Jermaine Jacob, Carissa Jeffery, Kania Keiko, Daniel Lum, Naomi Martin, Breanne Naone, Arri Nguyen, Alohalani Pa'akaula-Lozier, Joeane Soriano, Cheyne Taum and Regina Vave—completed their first year of aviation explorer sessions.