BUSINESS BRIEFS
Hawaii Biotech seeks vaccine trials
Advertiser Staff and News Services
'Aiea-based Hawaii Biotech has filed an application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct human clinical trials for a West Nile virus vaccine.
Authorization for the trials could be significant because it would signal that the FDA has found Hawaii Biotech's procedures competent.
Hawaii Biotech is a privately held biotechnology company focused on research and development of vaccines for emerging infectious diseases including West Nile virus and Influenza.
West Nile virus is a mosquito-borne disease that can cause life-threatening illness in humans, horses and birds.
It has killed almost 800 people in the United States since it was first detected in this country in 1999.
HAWAIIAN AIR FINED OVER DISCLOSURE
The U.S. Department of Transportation has fined Hawaiian Airlines for "failing to properly or adequately disclose the on-time performance of specific flights when requested," according to a report from Travel Weekly.
DOT regulations require the 20 carriers that submit on-time performance data to the federal agency also reveal the on-time rating of any flight to any customer who asks for such information "during the course of a registration inquiry," according to the Travel Weekly report.
The DOT hit Hawaiian and JetBlue with fines when their phone agents could not provide on-time information for a particular flight. Both airlines said their noncompliance was unintentional and added that they have begun training reservation agents to provide such information to customers, Travel Weekly reported.
Hawaiian was fined $50,000, although the DOT said it would forgive half of that amount if Hawaiian has no additional violations over the next 12 months, according to Travel Weekly.
GO! AIRLINE 66.7% FULL IN SEPTEMBER
Interisland carrier go! said its planes were 66.7 percent full in September.
The airline said its preliminary traffic figures show that it served a total of 52,552 passengers last month. The carrier also said 90.6 percent of its flights were on time in September.
Mesa Air Group Inc., the parent company of go!, reported a load factor for September of 72.3 percent, up from 71.9 percent from the same month a year earlier.
Mesa served 1,191,218 passengers in September, down 1.4 percent from 1,208,696 in September 2006.
ASIA-PACIFIC SECURITY SUMMIT OPENS
The fifth annual Asia-Pacific Homeland Security Summit and Exposition opened yesterday at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort at Ko Olina.
The three-day conference brings together government leaders, senior business executives, and security, technology and anti-terrorism experts to discuss solutions to public- and private-sector security threats in the Asia-Pacific region.
This year's summit will focus on the Asia-Pacific region's changing environment, the maritime balance of power in Asia-Pacific, keeping oceans safe and security technology.
Yesterday's session included remarks by Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, state adjutant general; Adm. Timothy Keating, commander, U.S. Pacific Command; Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (Singapore); and Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
