Cheap Tickets near deal to stay in Hawai'i

By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer

Several months after Cheap Tickets said it may move its 200-employee call center out of Hawai'i, the online ticket wholesaler is closer to wrapping up negotiations with city and state officials that could keep the company in Honolulu.

Cheap Tickets, a Hawai'i-founded company that was bought last October by multinational conglomerate Cendant, is likely to get a package of incentives such as tax breaks, financial help for its employee-training programs, or an inexpensive land lease if it opts to stay in Hawai'i, company and city officials said this week.

"The jury is still out as far as what the plan is exactly going to be, but we have had good dialogue with a number of parties in Honolulu," said Sam Galeotos, chief executive of Cheap Tickets, speaking from Cendant headquarters in New Jersey. "We've had fairly upbeat conversations with everyone; really, we're just kind of waiting for all the pieces to come together."

Galeotos and several Cheap Tickets officials had recently returned from a negotiating trip to Honolulu, meeting with the mayor and city development officials.

The company has been negotiating with the city, state and private development group Enterprise Honolulu since Cendant bought Cheap Tickets, cut about 80 corporate jobs and moved its top staff to the East Coast. Cheap Tickets officials in November said they were looking for a better deal and would move their call center from Hawai'i if another city made a more attractive bid.

While Cheap Tickets hasn't committed to Hawai'i, "we haven't made any decisions to go elsewhere," Galeotos said, adding that negotiations are "closer than ever."

Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris said the city also wants to persuade Cendant to move additional divisions to Hawai'i.

Aside from Cheap Tickets, Cendant owns franchises including Avis, Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Howard Johnson and Ramada.

Cheap Tickets was founded in Hawai'i in 1986.