BUSINESS BRIEFS
Ko Olina doles out $400,000
Advertiser Staff
More than 300 West O'ahu residents will receive roughly $400,000 in scholarship grants next week as part of the latest installment of Ko Olina Training Fund awards.
With the award, the fund established by Ko Olina Resort & Marina principals will have contributed nearly $1.4 million in scholarships in three years, and must contribute another $1.1 million over the next three years as a condition for receiving $75 million in state tax credits to build an aquarium at the resort.
The latest round of awards will be presented at a private ceremony on Aug. 17 at the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa.
For more information, including how to obtain scholarship applications, call Ko Olina Charities at 671-2512, e-mail trainingfund@koolina.com or visit www.koolina.com
HAWAIIAN AIR RIDERSHIP GROWS
Hawaiian Airlines said it flew 571,569 passengers in July, up 4.4 percent from the same month a year earlier.
The state's largest airline said its planes were 89.3 percent full last month, down 0.5 percentage point from July 2005's 89.8 percent.
The airline also recorded 623.9 million revenue passenger miles in May, a 0.5 percent drop from the previous July. Available seat miles were 698.9 million, up 0.1 percent from last July.
SAMOA GOVERNOR PRESSES AIR ISSUE
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — A defiant territorial governor said Monday the Federal Aviation Administration doesn't control his borders, insisting he has the power to exclude Hawaiian Airlines from flying to American Samoa despite threats to cut federal funding.
Gov. Togiola Tulafono said he doesn't dispute the FAA's authority to regulate airlines, but he says the federal agency cannot keep him from exercising the territory's authority to control customs and border crossings.
Tulafono criticized the FAA for its warning against implementing an executive order issued last month demanding that Hawaiian Airlines end its Honolulu-Pago Pago route in favor of another airline.
