Airline seats to Hawaii seen holding steady this quarter

The state forecasts just a 0.4 percent decline despite a big drop-off from Japan

By Dave Segal
Article from: Star-Advertiser
STAR-ADVERTISER
Avi Mannis, vice president of marketing for Hawaiian Airlines, says Japan is an important part of the company’s long-term strategy and that a decline in passengers following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has not changed Hawaiian’s strategy. Hawaii should be able to weather the drop in airline traffic from Japan this quarter.

Added seats on flights from the West Coast, Australia and South Korea should make up for the reduction in Japa­nese flights since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority said yesterday it is forecasting airlift to Hawaii to be down just 0.4 percent from the year-earlier quarter due to increases from the U.S. West (1.2 percent), Australia (43.5 percent) and South Korea (136.6 percent).

Those increases will offset a projected 10.5 percent second-quarter decrease in air seats from Japan as well as a 20.3 percent reduction in service from the U.S. East market, according to the tourism agency’s revised airline seat capacity outlook report.

“This is an indicator that interest in travel to Hawaii remains strong and mirrors our strategy of driving increased demand, and particularly from destinations such as the U.S. West, Korea and Australia,” HTA President and CEO Mike McCartney said.

HTA, which recently said it was implementing a $3 million tourism recovery plan, said passenger arrivals from Japan were likely down 18.3 percent in March.

Japan Air Lines and Delta Air Lines have temporarily reduced service between Japan and Hawaii, according to HTA.

Hawaiian Airlines is keeping its daily flight to Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport and proceeding with plans to begin daily service to Osaka in July. But Hawaiian said it is delaying putting its 294-seat Airbus A330-200 on its Haneda flights until summer and will continue to go with its 264-seat Boeing 767s.

Hawaiian said it expects bookings from Japan, which currently account for about 5 percent of its revenue, to be down just under 20 percentage points over the next month.

Avi Mannis, vice president of marketing for Hawaiian Airlines, told the Pacific Asia Travel Association Hawaii Chapter yesterday at the Hawaii Prince Hotel in Waikiki that the airline remains committed to Japan.

Mannis said Hawaiian’s service to Japan has gone uninterrupted since the earthquake except for one day when the airline had difficulty finding ground transportation for its flight crew.

“Our operations team did a fantastic, dedicated job of making sure we retained all of our service to Haneda and that we got people in and out,” Mannis said.

“Japan is an important part of our strategy for the long term,” he said. “We came into the Japa­nese market in Haneda, and now, with the Osaka announcement, we fully expected this was a market we were going to pursue. Nothing about the (Japan) events have fundamentally changed the strategy.”

Mannis said Hawaiian has been focused on Japan even more so over the last month and that the company has been participating in community fundraising events as well as implementing a payroll deduction program for employees who want to contribute to the Japan relief effort.

The airline is planning a “Lei Day” for Japan from 6 to 9 p.m. May 1 at Aloha Tower Marketplace in which there will be continuous live entertainment from well-known Hawaii performers and 25 food stations from the state’s leading chefs. Tickets are $100 per person for general admission, with other packages also available. More information is available online at LeiDayForJapan.org or by calling 585-0011.

Also yesterday, Blaine Miya­sato, vice president of product development for Hawaiian, said the renovation of Hawaiian’s interisland terminal at Hono­lulu Airport is on schedule and will be completed by June 1. He said it will cut passengers’ check-in time to just 2-1⁄2 minutes from 10 minutes.

Hawaiian Airlines repeats as most punctual carrier in Feb.

By Star-Advertiser Staff
Article from: Star-Advertiser

Hawaiian Airlines was the nation’s top-ranked carrier for on-time performance and fewest flight cancellations in February, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Hawaiian had an industry-best 91.8 percent of its flights arrive as scheduled in February, 17.3 percentage points better than the national average. Hawaiian also topped all carriers with a cancellation rate of 0.1 percent, or six cancellations out of 5,052 flights.

The DOT report covers 16 airlines, including seven carriers providing service to Hawaii.

THE BUZZ
Compliments of Anne Diola of Old Republic Title & Escrow of Hawaii

April is a pivotal month in real estate. There’s just something about spring blossoms and long-awaited days of sunshine that spark home buying. Families start making plans to move over the summer months. Historically, from April through mid-July, the rush is on.
March marked a time of unseasonably bad weather and international tragedy, which affected real estate across the nation. Nationwide, existing home sales fell in February following three straight monthly increases.
Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, observes that “housing affordability is at record levels and the economy is improving. Still, home sales are being constrained by unnecessarily tight credit and appraisals that do not reflect rising prices. This tug and pull is causing a gradual but uneven recovery.”
All-cash sales were a record 33% in February and investors accounted for 19% of those sales. The balance of home sales was from first-time homebuyers or repeat buyers.
There are many great deals now. A prequalified buyer can reap substantial rewards. I work with some great mortgage consultants – let me know if you would like an introduction. Let the sun shine!

JUST ASK
Q: My house is stuck in the winter blues. How do I freshen it up for a spring sale?
A: The way you live in your home is not necessarily the best way to show your home when you’re trying to sell. If you are like most people, you enjoy your collections of things and your home probably doesn’t look like those on the HGTV tours. In order to sell for top dollar, you have to get rid of clutter.
Do you put off spring-cleaning? Does each item seem to call out to you and beg you to not put it away? If so, here is an easy method to reduce clutter.
Label four boxes:
Storage – Put things you don’t need for the next three months in here.
Put away – These are things you want to keep and enjoy regularly (for example, small picture frames of family), but need to be stored in a closet or garage temporarily to reduce clutter.
Give-Away/Sell – Who else will be happy to have this item? Be generous.
Trash – Damaged and broken items go here.
It sounds simple, but this really works. Move quickly. Your give-away box may end up in storage for a while. But the more you declutter, the more your home will appear more spacious and inviting to potential buyers.

FYI
This is the second in a series of articles on painting your home.
What is paint sheen and why does it matter? The sheen of the paint is the level of reflective light that can be seen when looking at the painted surface from an angle. The following are the various paint sheens available today:
Flat: The matte finish of a flat paint looks especially good on drywall and plaster. While it hides surface blemishes, flat paints are prone to show scuffs and grime and they are harder to clean. Ceilings are a good place to use a flat sheen.
Eggshell or Velvet: Eggshell is often used in place of a flat finish for walls since its surface is washable and more resistant to smudges. Some manufacturers now create a velvet finish, a lower-sheen cousin to eggshell that’s growing in popularity.
Satin: A satin finish is ideal for children’s rooms since they’re easy to clean up. It’s also good in bathrooms, kitchens and exterior applications. Excess moisture beads up in the surface instead of being absorbed into the paint.
Semi-gloss: This finish is good for woodwork and trim, when you want to set it off from a low-sheen wall. Some people like to use semi-gloss paint on kitchen walls since it’s durable and can be cleaned up easily. But keep in mind the higher the sheen, the more imperfections you’ll see.
Gloss: Gloss is best used when you want a dramatic shine on floors, woodwork or a dark accent wall. Smooth surfaces can appear like “plastic” when coated in a gloss finish, so use with caution.
Be sure to get samples of your paints before you purchase – though the types of sheen may have universal names, the actual sheen levels can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Next month we’ll consider the uses of color and how to pick the best colors to suit your home, look, and lifestyle.

Contact Info:
Anne Diola
Real Estate Marketing Specialist
Old Republic Title & Escrow of Hawaii
33 Lono Ave, Ste 195
Kahului, HI 96732
W: (808) 281-8430
M: (808) 281-8430
adiola@ortc.com

Canadian dollar extends gain after U.S. jobs, firm oil prices

Article from: http://www.yahoo.ca

TORONTO (Reuters) – The Canadian dollar rose to three-year highs against the U.S. currency on Friday morning after a strong U.S. jobs report underpinned hopes of an economic recovery.

The currency touched its highest level since November 2007 at C$0.9643 to the U.S. dollar, or $1.0370, shortly after data showed U.S. nonfarm payrolls notched a second straight month of solid gains in March. A fall in the jobless rate to a two-year low of 8.8 percent also marked a decisive shift in the labor market that should help the economic recovery.

Firm oil prices also supported the Canadian dollar.

At 9:20 a.m. (1320 GMT), the Canadian currency stood at C$0.9645 to the U.S. dollar, or $1.0368, up from Thursday’s close at C$0.9696 to the U.S. dollar, or $1.0314.

“The technicals still favor a higher Canada. I think it will be a slow grind higher based on the strong oil prices and prospects of global recovery, which will get more traction I think…because of the U.S. employment data,” said Michael O’Neill, managing director at Knightsbridge Foreign Exchange.

“It was stronger than expected, but the market was looking for stronger than expected. The risk is then you don’t get as big a move.”

He said it was too early to tell if the break through the quadruple bottom of C$0.9680 was a move with conviction, putting the daily range between C$0.9640 and C$0.9720.

O’Neill said the Canadian dollar would also draw solid support from the price of oil, which was above $107 a barrel, trading around its highest since September 2008 as fighting in Libya, an OPEC producer, helped underpin the strength.

Canadian bond prices slid across the curve, tracking U.S. Treasuries, after the higher-than-expected growth in U.S. payrolls and the fall in unemployment, bringing closer the day when U.S. interest rates may rise. Investors shed safe-haven assets for stocks and other riskier bets in response.

Canadian interest rate hike expectations also firmed slightly, with the odds of a September rate hike gaining following the U.S. data. Traders maintained bets that there is little chance the central bank will raise rates in April, according to a Reuters calculation of yields on overnight index swaps. Odds of a May hike were also seen as low.

The two-year bond fell 7 Canadian cents to yield 1.867 percent, while the 10-year bond lost 17 Canadian cents to yield 3.371 percent.

(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Lehman Bros. to auction off Ritz-Carlton Kapalua

The giant investment banking firm is owed $268 million on the foreclosed Maui property

By Andrew Gomes
Article From: Star-Advertiser

The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua is headed for auction after a foreclosure lawsuit was filed in September.
The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua hotel is headed for a May auction, potentially giving the 404-unit luxury property a new owner after loans taken out to finance a lavish renovation in 2008 couldn’t be repaid.

Lehman Bros. received approval earlier this month to put the oceanfront property in West Maui up for auction after filing a foreclosure lawsuit in September against owners that include institutional investors and Maui Land & Pineapple Co.

The investment banking firm issued $232 million in loans to finance a $180 million renovation and condominium conversion plan that the hotel’s owners envisioned would be repaid by selling 107 units in one hotel wing as residential condos.

But downturns in the economy and real estate market inhibited sales, and the owners defaulted on the loan in early 2009. As of November, Lehman was owed $268 million including late fees, according to the foreclosure suit.

A new owner, which could include Lehman if no one is willing to pay more than the investment bank is owed, would be in a position to resume condo sales efforts or restructure the existing operating plan.

The original plan was created by a partnership led by Miami-based hotel investment and development firm Gencom Group, which bought the then-548-room hotel on land leased from Maui Land in 2006 for about $200 million.

At that time, Hawaii’s real estate and tourism markets were peaking, with annual visitor arrivals topping 7 million and luxury resort condos selling for eye-popping prices.

Initially, Gencom and partners Highgate Holdings and an investment fund affiliated with Goldman Sachs announced plans for a $45 million renovation. Then in 2007, the Gencom-led partnership said it would spend $95 million on the renovation and convert 107 units in the hotel to condos by reducing the number of hotel rooms.

Maui Land sold the land under the hotel in 2007 to the partnership for $25 million plus what ended up being a 16 percent ownership stake in the project.

The hotel was closed from July to December 2007 for the redevelopment work, which swelled to $180 million as the real estate market was cooling.

Still, the plan appeared on track for success as Gencom announced in early 2008 that it had signed 93 binding condo sales contracts for an average of $1.9 million, or $176 million in total.

Most of those sales, however, failed to close. Ultimately, only 34 sales were completed. Since then, the market has struggled with recovery, as one unit in the project that sold for $1.48 million in 2008 was resold last June for $700,000, according to property records.

Up for auction will be the 73 unsold condo units, 297 hotel units, common areas, commercial space and 21 acres of undeveloped land. The assets are being sold in bulk, not separately. The auction is scheduled for May 5 on Maui.

Local real estate industry executive Chris Lau is serving as foreclosure commissioner handling the auction.

Lau said early interest has been strong. “I’ve had many, many calls,” he said.

Under auction rules, Lehman could assume ownership if no one is willing to bid more than what it is owed, though the investment bank could let a bidder acquire the property for less.

A winning bid is subject to confirmation by a Circuit Court judge.

Joseph Toy, principal of Hospitality Advisors LLC, noted that several other Hawaii hotels that went to foreclosure auction during the economic downturn were retained by lenders, though he said it is too hard to predict whether someone will outbid Lehman for the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua. “You just don’t know,” he said.

If the hotel changes hands at auction, the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua would have its fourth owner since it was built in 1992. Japan-based Nissho Iwai Corp., Ritz-Carlton Co. and Maui Land developed the hotel in 1992 for $206 million. After the hotel struggled financially in the mid-1990s, Nissho bought out its partners in 1996, and in 2001 sold the hotel to Marriott International and investment firm Blackacre Capital Management LLC for $144 million.