BUSINESS BRIEFS
Mesa submits flight plans
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Arizona-based regional airline Mesa Air Group met with Hawai'i state officials about its plans to launch interisland service next year.
Mesa Air management, led by board member Maurice Parker, on Wednesday explained the new service's proposed flight schedule to authorities from the state Department of Transportation.
The new airline plans to fly between Honolulu, Hilo, Kona, Lihu'e and Kahului.
HAWAIIAN SAYS MORE SEATS TAKEN
Hawaiian Airlines said yesterday it carried 12.9 percent more passengers in September than the same month a year ago.
The state's No. 1 carrier served about 470,400 passengers last month, compared with about 417,000 a year earlier. Hawaiian said its planes flew 89 percent full.
FEWER JOBLESS CLAIMS FILED
The number of first-time claims for unemployment insurance filed by Hawai'i residents fell to 800 for the week ending Oct. 1, down from 1,100 the same week a year earlier, the U.S. Labor Department reported today.
Hawai'i was among the states with the lowest number of filings, accounting for just 0.2 percent of the total number of unemployment claims filed nationwide. Hawai'i's unemployment rate of 2.6 percent in August was the lowest in the nation.
TRADE DEFICIT SOARS IN AUGUST
The nation's oil bill surged to a record in August and so did goods imported from China, pushing the U.S. trade deficit to the third-highest level ever. And it is bound to get worse because hurricane-related increases for oil are still ahead.
The deficit rose to $59 billion, about $1.1 billion more than the previous month, the Commerce Department said yesterday. There was a big increase in export sales of commercial jetliners, but that was swamped by foreign oil imports.
