Matson crew to be honored ADVERTISING Matson crew to be honored HONOLULU (AP) — The Coast Guard is honoring container ship crewmembers who rescued three people from a sailboat stranded in a hurricane off Hawaii. The crew of Matson Inc.
Matson crew to be honored
HONOLULU (AP) — The Coast Guard is honoring container ship crewmembers who rescued three people from a sailboat stranded in a hurricane off Hawaii.
The crew of Matson Inc. container ship Manukai will be receiving a public service award from the Coast Guard today.
Three men were sailing the 42-foot Walkabout from California to Hawaii when they got caught in waters roiled by Hurricane Julio in August.
The Coast Guard coordinated the rescue with the container ship, which was on its way to Honolulu to deliver goods. The container ship’s crew pulled the stranded sailors aboard to safety.
The meritorious public safety award is the second-highest award presented by the Coast Guard.
Seawater air conditioner sold
HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii investment firm and a European company with expertise in deep-water cooling are buying a Honolulu company that plans to use ocean water to cool office buildings.
Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning said Friday Ulupono Initiative and Capital Cooling are assuming ownership of the company.
The company will pump deep ocean water through a pipeline more than four miles offshore to a cooling station in Kakaako. First Hawaiian Center and the Prince Kuhio Federal Building have signed on as customers.
The new system will reduce electricity usage by the equivalent of a 40-megawatt solar farm. This is more than the utility-scale solar farms currently operating in Hawaii.
Pilots asked to
return bonuses
HONOLULU (AP) — Pilots from Island Air were probably pretty happy when they got a $4,000 Christmas bonus — that is, until the airline wanted the money back.
The regional airline owned by billionaire Larry Ellison said it paid the bonuses prematurely in October.
The company plans to take payroll action to recover the erroneous payments.
The bonuses went to about 45 pilots and amounted to less than $180,000.
Pilots who deposited bonuses into retirement plans will have those returned. Those who received a cash disbursement will have the amount taken out of paychecks over the next four months, or they can just write a check.
The error stems from an agreement to pay bonuses 30 days before the arrival of new planes for the airline. However, the aircraft delivery was delayed after a new CEO, Dave Pflieger, came in and the airline began working with outside experts to analyze the future fleet. Pflieger said the analysis work is not expected to be done until late January.
Once a new aircraft is selected, the airline could have the new planes in its fleet by early summer, and then the bonuses would be restored.
The pilots union, in a letter to members, asked: What’s the point of taking back the bonuses, if they’re truly going to be repaid?
“The bookkeeping and tax complications, plus the waste of staff time, simply do not justify recovery of monies today just to repay in a short period,” the union said.
In addition to the bonus giveback, a 5 percent pay increase scheduled for pilots would be delayed because of the postponed aircraft deliveries, said Ed Davidson, chief operating officer, in a letter.
Honolulu-based Island Air has lost money in each quarter since Ellison bought the company in 2013.
Pilots are concerned that the delay in adding to the current five-aircraft fleet could result in furloughs.
Island Air, which has about 400 employees, declined to comment about the potential for furloughs, saying, “like most companies, we also do not comment on internal company matters.
