Posted on: Wednesday, June 8, 2005

BUSINESS BRIEFS
11% rise in flight seats projected

Advertiser Staff

Airline capacity on flights to Hawai'i is expected to reach 2.7 million seats this summer (June-August), a 10.8 percent increase over the same period last year, according to a report released yesterday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Domestic scheduled summer service to Hawai'i is expected to climb to 2 million air seats, a 14.6 percent increase over last summer. U.S. West seats are expected to rise 15.9 percent during the period, reaching 1.6 million. U.S. East air seats should reach 364,000, up 9.3 percent from the same period last year.

International air seats are forecast to increase 1.6 percent to 716,000 total seats. Japanese air seats are projected to reach 523,000, up 4.6 percent from last summer.

Oregon to get biodiesel plant

Leaders of Oregon's first commercial biodiesel manufacturing plant said plans are in place to start production in November.

SeQuential-Pacific — controlled by SeQuential Biofuels of Portland and Pacific Biodiesel of Kahului, Maui — said it has purchased an acre of industrial land in North Portland to build the plant.

Tomas Endicott, managing partner of SeQuential Biofuels, said the plant would be capable of producing about 1 million gallons per year of biodiesel, made from cooking oil and usable as fuel in diesel engines.