Business briefs

Advertiser Staff

Cendant issues tender offer

Cendant Corp., franchiser of Ramada hotels and the Avis rental car business, said it started a tender offer to buy the shares of Honolulu-based Cheap Tickets Inc. for $425 million, or $16.50 a share.

The tender offer for the seller of discounted airline tickets and hotel rooms is scheduled to expire Sept. 21, New York-based Cendant said in a press release.

In June, Cendant agreed to buy Galileo International Inc. for $3.5 billion to gain the second biggest reservations system for travel agents.

Polynesian Air maps new route

Polynesian Airlines is exploring a new route from Hawai'i to New Zealand via Tonga and Samoa, which have signed an "open skies" agreement to open airline travel between the islands.

The "open skies" agreement was signed by the Samoan and Tongan governments in Nauru last week during the Pacific Islands Forum Summit.

Under the agreement, Polynesian Airlines would create a route originating in Honolulu, stopping in the Samoan capital of Apia, then stopping in Tonga before ending in New Zealand, said John Fitzgerald, acting chief executive of the Samoan government-owned airline.

Arrangements for the route are expected to be completed next month, Fitzgerald said.

Polynesian announced last week that it was adding a second flight between Apia and Honolulu at the end of October, after the delivery of its second B-737-800 aircraft.