Looks like my forecast of additional flights from South Korea last week is bearing fruit.

Pacific Business News reported today that Korean Airlines will add three weekly flights between Inchon and Honolulu on Sept. 3. (See:)

PBN said the flights will add between 700-800 additional seats per week here.

Last week, Biz Bites reported that Hawaii Visitors & Conventions Bureau and Hawaii Tourism Authority officials have been talking to Korean Airlines for months about adding a second daily flight from South Korea. (See:)

The expanded visa waiver program is making it easier for South Korean travelers to vacation in Hawaii.

Visitors from South Korea accounted for 54,000 visitors last year,  which is up 28.5 percent from 2007.

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Hawaiian Airlines today announced record earnings of $116.7 million for all of 2009. But two statistic that really caught my eye in that earnings release.

The first is fuel expense. The airline's fuel cost plunged 42.6 percent to $243.9 million as the airline's average cost for a gallon of jet fuel fell from $3.17 to $1.84.

Last year, Hawaiian's fuel costs totaled $424.5 million, making it the company's largest expense. This year, it was the airline's second largest cost behind employee wages and benefits.

The lower fuel costs, no doubt, will make it easier for the airline to give its pilots and machinists the raises that they negotiated in December and October.

The other compelling figure was the airline's industry leading 8.2 percent operating margin.

Operating margins -- which you get by dividing a company's net profit by its revenues -- measures how efficiently a company is run and its pricing strategy.

That Hawaiian led the industry from the standpoint of operating margins during  a time of weakness for the airline business speaks well for the company.

It helps explain why the airline was able to post record earnings at a time when revenues dropped.

2010 isn't going to be a great year for the nation's economy and the local tourism market but Hawaiian is likely to gain ground from expansion that will come with its new Airbus A330-200 jets.

If the company can maintain or improve its operating margins, then Hawaiian will have a pretty decent 2010.

Central Pacific Financial Corp.'s stock has declined 20 percent despite ongoing takeover talks.

CPB's stock closed at $1.29 per share today on the New York Stock Exchange, down from Friday's close of $1.62.

In its earnings release Friday, the company disclosed that it is in discussions with "potential outside investors." The company declined to identify the buyers.

Typically, takeover talk will boost a stock. But the company's finances are in such dire straits.

In its earnings statement, the company reported a record loss of $292.8 million for 2009, which is probably the largest ever single-year loss by a Hawaii-based company.

On Monday, B. Riley & Co. analyst Joseph Gladue downgraded his rating for CPF to sell.

One measure of Wall Streets interest or disinterest: During Friday's investors teleconference call, none of the analyst who follow the company asked any questions about the company's latest quarter, its prospects going forward or about the pending deal talks.

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Symphony update: The Honolulu Symphony filed is financial schedules before Friday's court-imposed deadline and avoided having its cased dismissed by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris.

During the creditors meeting Friday, symphony officials also disclosed that its Executive Director Majken Mechling was hired to a three-year contract last year at around $175,000. The symphony previously had asked that it be allowed to file Mechling's salary under seal.

Local tourism officials are hoping for increased visitor arrivals from Korea this year.

Hawaii Visitors & Conventions Bureau and Hawaii Tourism Authority officials have been talking to Korean Airlines for months about adding a second daily flight between Honolulu to Seoul.

Visitors from South Korea accounted for 54,000 visitors last year,  which is up 28.5 percent from 2007.

Part of the optimism has to do with the expanded visa waiver program which makes it easier for South Korean travelers to vacation here

HTA officials thought they were close to getting a commitment from Korean Air for more flights last year but that was before the H1N1 flu scare hit last year.

The relatively strong dollar probably isn't helping either. Earlier this month, the Korean Won recently dropped to a 52-week low last month.

A strong dollar diminishes South Korean consumers' purchasing power. It means that a Hawaiian vacation is much more expensive.

Still, the Won is still trading above levels that it did for most of the 2006-2008 period.

Hawaiian Airlines is bullish long-term on that market. Last year , the airline began operating a code share agreement with Korean Airlines in an attempt to capitalize on increase visitor arrivals for South Korea.

Hawaiian had estimated that the new visa waiver program would increase South Korean visitor counts between 15 percent and 40 percent.

Over the long-term, the airline will be able to capitalize on growth in the market when it starts flying its new Airbus A330-200 jets.

The Honolulu Symphony has until Friday to file its complete financial schedules.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris said earlier this month would dismiss the bankruptcy if the symphony does not file its full list of debtors, creditors, assets and business records by Friday.

"Failure to file these documents by the extended deadline will result in dismissal of the case without further notice," Faris ruled.

If the case is dismissed, the symphony would be barred from filing a new bankruptcy reorganization for 180 day, the order said.

Orchestra musicians, who stand to lose jobs and benefits in the reorganization, have accused symphony officials of dragging their feet when it comes to disclosing the organzation's finances.

So far, the symphony has provided some of the details of its finances in a monthly financial report filed in the bankruptcy case last week.

The report noted that the symphony's bank accounts have about $80,000 of cash on hand. Total assets are listed at $863,000.

The symphony officials previously had asked to file salary figures for its executive director and other staffer under seal but they have since reconsidered that position.

In a monthly update, the symphony said it paid Executive Director Majken Mechling $9,249 in December, which is equivalent to about $111,000 a year.

Bank of Hawaii Corp. did well enough during the fourth quarter to beat Wall Streets expectations by a healthy margin.

In its earnings report yesterday, the bank said it earned 84 cents per share during the quarter, compared to 74 cents forecasted by analysts, thanks to a $25.7 million, or 53 cents per share, one-time gain from the sale of mortgage-backed securities.

But the narrative portion of bank's earnings press release makes a significant omission about the bank's balance sheets.

While the bank noted that its assets and deposits were up, there's no mention in the written portion of the press release of Bank of Hawaii's loan volume.

You had to look closely at the charts provided by the bank to see that loan volume was actually down nearly 12 percent to $5.76 billion.

Loans -- which generate most of a bank's income -- are often seen as a lagging indicator of an economy. When times are tough, there are fewer borrowers for high-priced homes and there are fewer business loans.

But it's also a leading economic indicator because the loan volume tells whether businesses are expanding or shrinking.

What's more, a bank's profitability is often gauged by the amount of loan volume it generates.

Bank of Hawaii's lower loan activity is pretty much the trend in the local banking industry.

-- Central Pacific Financial Corp does not reports its fourth quarter results until Friday but through the third quarter, the company's loan volume was down 18.3 percent to $3.25 billion.

-- American Savings Bank's loan volume was off 10.6 percent during the first nine months of 2009 to $3.76 billion while Territorial Savings loans were down 4.8 percent to $602 million at the end of the third quarter.

-- Loans and leases at First Hawaiian Bank, the state's largest bank, were virtually flat at $7.78 billion, according to bank filings with the FDIC.

It will be interesting to see what loan figures are reported for the fourth quarter by Central Pacific, American Savings, First Hawaiian and Territorial in the coming weeks.

Double-digit percentage declines in loan activity will not bode well for the economy.