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United to add Maui flight

United Airlines will add a fourth daily roundtrip flight to Maui from Los Angeles starting in December, giving the airline a total of seven Maui flights each day. The airline, the largest serving Hawai'i, will use a 182-passenger Boeing 757 on the route. It will have four flights a day from Los Angeles, and three each day from San Francisco.

"That's a lot of lift to Maui," said Norm Reeder, United's managing director for Hawai'i. "When I arrived here six years ago we had three. Customer demand to Maui, and Hawai'i in total, remains strong. Leisure markets are strong, and leisure to Hawai'i from the U.S. Mainland is very strong."

Dole plans more crops in Hawai'i

Dole Food Corp. will plant several thousand acres of new, sweeter pineapples on O'ahu's North Shore in the next few years, said David Murdock, president of the Westlake Village, Calif.-based food producer.

The new type of pineapple has proved to be profitable in other markets and the company believes it will be profitable in Hawai'i as well, Murdock said. Dole is also looking at other crops to grow on the 6,500 acres of land it owns and the 1,500 acres it leases on O'ahu.

Murdock is also spending $500 million on capital improvements in Hawai'i through Castle & Cooke, including new home developments on O'ahu, renovations at the Manele Bay resort on Lanai and expanding the Dole Plantation at Wahiawa. Murdock bought the development company last year.