Hawaiian Airlines had the nation's best on-time record and fewest flight cancellations in September.

The U.S. Transportation Department said Hawaii's on-time performance of 94.1 percent was 7.9 percentage points above the industry's average of 86.2 percent.

The local carrier said it had just eight cancellations out of 5,904 flights in September, topping the industry.

Hawaiian also was third among all airlines for baggage handling, with an average of 1.9 mishandled baggage reports for every 1,000 passengers. The DOT report covers 19 airlines, including nine serving Hawaii.

Separately, go! airlines said its planes were 65 percent full in October, down from 70.8 percent full the same month a year earlier. Go!, a division of Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group, said it carried 54,867 passengers in October, down 13.6 percent from 63,482 passengers a year ago.

DISPATCHERS OK NEW 4-YEAR CONTRACT

Hawaiian Airlines' 31 dispatchers have overwhelmingly ratified a new four-year contract.

The announcement was made yesterday in a joint news release issued by the airline and the Transport Workers Union. It says the contract provides increased pay and benefits, as well as profit sharing for the dispatchers and operational improvements for the company.

Airline President and CEO Mark Dunkerley says the pact is consistent with the one ratified by Hawaiian flight attendants earlier this year and with proposals offered all of the company's union groups.

Hawaiian is involved in federally mediated negotiations with the Air Line Pilots Association and with the International Association of Machinists.The pilots have said their contract talks have reached an impasse.

MACADAMIA ORCHARDS POSTS NET LOSS

ML Macadamia Orchards L.P. swung to a net loss in the third quarter from a net profit a year earlier as it collected less in crop insurance recovery.

The Hilo-based company said it lost $42,000, or 1 cent per Class A Unit.

That compared to a year earlier's net income of $886,000 or 12 cents a unit.

The company said revenue of $5.69 million compared with sales of $5.76 million a year earlier. But ML Macadamia said its crop insurance was $157,000 compared to $886,000 a year prior.

ML Macadamia said its harvest of 6.5 million pounds was 4 percent lower than the year-previous quarter, though was better than the historical average for that period.