Hawaiian Air traffic climbs 8.3%

Hawaiian Airlines filled more of its available seats in October than a year ago as the number of passengers it carried rose 8.3 percent.

The state's oldest carrier transported 700,569 passengers last month compared with 646,756 in October 2008. Its load factor, or percentage of seats filled, was up 2.4 percentage points to 85.3 percent from 82.9 percent a year earlier.

Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, rose 5.7 percent to 680.7 million from 644 million while available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, gained 2.6 percent to 797.7 million from 777.2 million.

Go! Mokulele co-owner's net falls

Republic Airways Holdings Inc., a 25 percent owner of interisland carrier go! Mokulele Airlines, posted a much smaller third-quarter profit from a year earlier as Midwest Airlines, purchased on July 31, lost money right away.

Republic posted a $3.3 million profit for the quarter, down from $17 million a year earlier. Midwest had a pretax loss of $15.9 million during the two months of the quarter it was owned by Republic. Revenue fell 6.7 percent to $359.6 million.

CVS profit up but big contracts lost

NEW YORK » CVS Caremark disclosed more multibillion-dollar contract losses in its pharmacy benefits management business and said the head of the unit, Caremark President Howard McLure, will retire Nov. 27.

Chief Executive Officer Tom Ryan said CVS, which also runs Longs Drug Stores Corp., won't reach its goals in 2010 because of the sharp reversal of fortunes at the Caremark unit, which administers drug benefits for employers. CVS shares plunged 20.1 percent, or $7.28, to $28.87 — its biggest one-day loss in eight years.

In total the company lost about $2 billion in 2010 revenue in the last three months. It now believes Caremark has lost $4.8 billion in contracts for next year.

CVS said its third-quarter profit jumped 39 percent to $1.02 billion. Revenue rose 18 percent to $24.64 billion.

Hyatt, Ancestry.com IPOs jump

NEW YORK » Two well-known companies surged in their market debuts yesterday despite what has recently been a difficult market for initial public offerings.

Shares of Hyatt Hotels Corp. jumped 12 percent in their first day as markets appeared to dismiss concerns about infighting among its founder's heirs and tepid hotel reservations around the world.

Meanwhile, investors impressed by Ancestry.com's large subscriber base and growth story pushed the genealogy Web site's stock up as much as 21 percent on the Nasdaq market.

Shares in Hyatt, which is based in Chicago, priced late Wednesday at $25 a piece, near the top end of the $23-to-$26 range, raising $950 million. The iconic hotel chain's shares closed $3 higher, or 12 percent, at $28. Proceeds from the sale mostly are going to the Pritzker family, the largest holders of Hyatt stock with an 85 percent stake.

Meanwhile, Ancestry priced 7.4 million shares at $13.50 each late Wednesday — the midpoint of its expected range of $12.50 to $14.50 — to raise $100 million in its initial public offering. The stock rose 70 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $14.20.

ON THE MOVE

Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel said Sean K. Clark has rejoined the firm to continue his practice of corporate law, securities, mergers and acquisitions. He previously was an associate general counsel for Hoku Scientific Inc. and general counsel for Malulani Investments Ltd.

Restaurants Hawaii has named W. Buddy Moore as vice president of sales and marketing. He previously was publisher of Modern Luxury Hawaii magazine.

Expedia Local Expert has appointed Alan Lawrence as general manager for Hawaii. He has 13 years' experience in leading sales and service organizations.