honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Wednesday, November 21, 2001

Cheap Tickets may leave Hawai'i

By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer

The new owner of Honolulu discount ticket vendor Cheap Tickets says it may move out of Hawai'i — and take about 200 full-time jobs with it — unless the state or city governments provide financial incentives to keep the company here.

Cendant, an international conglomerate that bought Cheap Tickets, is seeking millions of dollars in tax relief, employee training money and cheap land in Hawai'i, local government officials said.

A state official said the company indicated it is entertaining offers elsewhere and will go with the most attractive package.

Cheap Tickets officials say they like Honolulu as a call center location, and have job openings for 30 new positions. The call center at 1440 Kapi'olani Blvd., near Ala Moana Center, employs about 200 people, most of them earning between $25,000 and $30,000 per year.

Company officials confirmed they are seeking incentives to stay in Hawai'i — and that they have entertained tempting offers from other places.

The company has already announced plans to move 81 jobs from Honolulu to Cendant operations on the Mainland.

"We and Cendant believe Honolulu is an attractive location to maintain a presence, particularly for a call center ... but it's a practical matter of any responsible, profitable business to look at alternatives that ultimately will benefit us in the long run," said Dawn Lyons, Cheap Tickets spokeswoman. "A lot of cities are soliciting jobs and business, and are providing attractive incentives to secure those additional jobs. We have to look at those incentives in order to ensure we are operating as efficiently as possible."

The company is negotiating with the Honolulu city government for employee training money, which would be used to retrain Cheap Tickets employees on Cendant's proprietary computer system. Also on the table are proposals to exempt the company from the state general excise and use tax — saving millions of dollars — and move the company to the city's enterprise zone in Pearl City, according to state and company officials.

City officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

A senior state official said the government wants Cheap Tickets to stay in Hawai'i — but that the company may not get everything it seeks.

"The last thing we want to do is let them go elsewhere, but we told them, there's some things we can do, and some things we can't do," said Joe Blanco, special adviser to Gov. Ben Cayetano for technology development.

Blanco said the governor does not plan to give the company a general excise tax exemption, saying it would be unfair to single out Cheap Tickets for special tax benefits.

Until the merger with Cendant, Cheap Tickets was one of the few profitable companies specializing in online discount travel. Cendant bought Cheap Tickets on Oct. 11 and rolled the company into its Travel Portal subsidiary.