Go! Mokulele air traffic falls

Passenger traffic at Go! Mokulele dropped 13.6 percent in January compared with a year ago as a decline in visitors coming to Hawaii reduced demand for interisland travel.

The airline had 50,325 passengers last month compared with 58,216 a year ago. Its load factor, or the percentage of passengers carried, slipped 3.3 percentage points to 61.3 percent from 64.6 percent.

Revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, fell 19.7 percent to 6.9 million from 8.6 million while available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, decreased 15.4 percent to 11.2 million from 13.3 million.

NLRB, Pacific Beach Hotel to meet

The National Labor Relations Board, representing five fired Pacific Beach Hotel workers, and the company will meet with U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Kobayashi tomorrow in an attempt to reach a settlement ahead of an injunction hearing set for March 8 in federal District Court.

A petition for an injunction that would allow the terminated Pacific Beach employees to be reinstated will be heard by U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright, who suggested that the two sides first meet with Kobayashi.

The NLRB filed the petition last month against HTH Corp., parent of the Pacific Beach Hotel, in which the NLRB asked the court to compel HTH to reinstate employees who were wrongly terminated, to recognize the International Longshore and Warehouse Union 142, to resume bargaining, and to cease and desist from further unlawful acts to prevent irreparable injury to its employees.

In September, Federal Administrative Law Judge James Kennedy ruled in favor of the union on charges dating back to 2007 over the union's right to represent workers. The judge, who found that HTH engaged in 15 unfair labor practices, gave the hotel 14 days to reinstate jobs for seven union negotiating committee members with back pay. Two of those employees have returned to their jobs, the NLRB said.

The hotel is appealing Kennedy's ruling, saying the union lacked the support of a majority of hotel employees.

CPB to install ATMs at Ala Moana

Central Pacific Bank said it will install 12 automated teller machines at Ala Moana Center on April 15.

The new Diebold Opteva ATMs will be the first in Hawaii to offer a customer preference feature, where CPB customers can preset their choice of language, cash withdrawal amount and receipt option, which will save several steps in each ATM transaction. The bank, whose only ATM at the mall now is in Sears, said the features also will be available at the same time on its other ATMs throughout the state.

Engineering to resume at Hoku plant

Hoku Scientific Inc. has reached a new engineering and procurement agreement with Shaw Group subsidiary Stone & Webster Inc. that will result in the resumption of work on Hoku's polysilicon plant in Pocatello, Idaho.

Honolulu-based Hoku, which had suspended all work under the contract in July while it sought additional financing, said it expects to receive the remaining $30 million of $50 million in debt financing from majority investor Tianwei New Energy Holdings Co. before the end of this month.

Disability insurer expands to Hawaii

The group protection segment of Philadelphia-based Lincoln National Corp. has expanded its temporary disability insurance program into Hawaii.

Hawaii TDI coverage is a wage replacement program, similar to other disability insurance/income replacement programs, and means if an employee is unable to work because of an off-the-job sickness or injury and meets the qualifying conditions of the law, he or she will be paid disability or sick leave benefits to partially replace the wages lost.

On the Move

» First Hawaiian Bank announced the following promotions:
Rachel A. Hanlon to senior vice president and team leader from vice president and manager of private banking division.
Brent E. Helgeson to senior vice president and division manager from senior vice president of dealer division.
Shigeo Hone to senior vice president from vice president and manager of Japan business development.
Vernon Y. Nakamura to senior vice president and area manager from vice president and branch manager of Kalihi branch.
Michael T. Nishida to senior vice president from vice president of PC and network services department.
Lois M. Tojio to senior vice president and area manager from vice president and area manager of Aina Haina branch.
Edward G. Untalan to senior vice president and banking center manager from vice president and manager of Maite Banking Center in Guam.
Wesley K.K. Young to senior vice president from vice president of branch residential loans.

» Mobi PCS has promoted Mike Tuttle to island sales manager for Maui from indirect account executive. He has 18 years of certified cellular repair technician experience with Motorola, Nokia and NEC.