Business briefs

Advertiser Staff

JAL to reduce Honolulu flights

Japan Airlines will halve weekly flights between Osaka and Honolulu to seven between April 1 and April 23, and reduce Tokyo-Honolulu services by a third to 14 flights a week because the Iraq war is deterring people from traveling, the carrier said. It will also cut back services to Paris, Istanbul, London, Hong Kong and Guam.

Japan Airlines said passenger numbers on international routes are falling as much as 10 percent in March from the year-earlier month.

Retail space may stay open

Available shopping center space in Hawai'i is expected to shrink this year, but perhaps more slowly than earlier thought because of the war in Iraq, according to a forecast by commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis Hawaii Inc.

The company said retail vacancies at 200 surveyed shopping centers statewide ended last year at 7.3 percent. Before the war began, the vacancy rate was expected to drop to 5.0 percent by the end of this year. The firm now says war may delay some leasing deals, keeping vacancy rates from dropping this year.

A&B sells Maui property

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. has sold a Kahului industrial property for $9.2 million to Fergus & Co., a local firm headed by longtime real estate investor Michael Fergus.

The 7-acre property with 21 tenants is across Dairy Road from Maui Marketplace. Honolulu-based A&B said it expects to reinvest the proceeds shortly.