Hawaiian Air has eye on East Coast

A top Hawaiian Airlines executive said the state's largest carrier could be interested in expanding to the East Coast.

Chief Financial Officer Peter Ingram said yesterday at a New York global transportation conference that cities in New York, Boston and the Washington, D.C., area are “;places that we could be interested in down the road if we thought market conditions made sense.”;

“;The other growth area is obviously in Asia,”; Ingram added.

Hawaiian, which began service to Manila last year, broadened its global presence earlier this year by expanding its code-share agreement with Korean Airlines.

Beginning Monday, the agreement enables Hawaii to put its booking codes on flights Korean operates between Incheon, South Korea, and Honolulu, as well as on flights between Incheon and Busan in South Korea and other points in Japan, Malaysia and Thailand.

Americans lost $1.3T in quarter

WASHINGTON » The brute force of the recession earlier this year turned back the clock on Americans' personal wealth to 2004 and wiped out a staggering $1.3 trillion as home values shrank and investments withered.

Net worth, or the value of assets such as homes, checking accounts and investments minus debts like mortgages and credit cards, declined 2.6 percent in the first three months of the year, the Federal Reserve said yesterday.

Those months were some of the worst of the recession so far for job losses, and the stock market sank to its lowest point of the year in March. Since then some signs suggest the economy is stabilizing.

New jobless claims decrease

WASHINGTON » The number of newly laid-off Americans filing jobless claims fell more than expected last week, but a rise in the number of people continuing to receive jobless aid signaled that an economic recovery is still far off.

The Labor Department said yesterday that initial claims for unemployment benefits fell last week by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 601,000. That's below analysts' estimates of 615,000.

Still, the number of people claiming benefits for more than a week rose by 59,000 to more than 6.8 million, the highest on records dating to 1967. The department also revised last week's data on continuing claims, replacing what had been a drop of 15,000 with an increase of 6,000.

That means continuing claims have set records for 19 straight weeks. The data lags initial claims by a week.

Retail sales rose 0.5 percent in May

WASHINGTON » Retail sales rose by the largest amount in four months in May, as a rebound in demand at auto dealerships and gas stations helped to offset continued weakness at department stores.

The Commerce Department said yesterday retail sales increased by 0.5 percent last month, in line with economists' expectations. It was the largest increase since sales surged by 1.7 percent in January after six straight declines.

Auto sales rose by 0.5 percent last month, the best showing since a 2.7 percent surge in January.

ON THE MOVE

  University of Hawaii West Oahu announced the following hires:

» Patricia Lee Masters as academic program officer. She has been academic dean on an international shipboard semester abroad program sponsored by MacQuarie University in Australia, director of international programs for Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and director of faculty and international program at Antioch University in Ohio.

» Jamie Hernandez as grants administrator. She has more than 20 years' experience as an institutional support at the UH-Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology.

» Lester Ishimoto as financial aid officer. He has more than 20 years; financial aid experience, including as financial aid administrator at the Digipen Institute of Technology in Washington.