As part of Aloha Airlines’ bankruptcy liquidation, the defunct carrier’s trade name and intellectual properties are being sold.
It’s difficult to put a price tag on the Aloha name but local marketing expert Gloria Garvey believes the brand still carries a lot of value.
Once dubbed “the People’s Airline,” Aloha has a rich, 60-year history of serving the local market. Memorabilia associated with the airline carries a lot of nostalgic value.
None of the previous interisland carriers that came and went — Discovery Airways, Mid Pacific Airlines and Mahalo Airlines — have anywhere near the following that Aloha had.
Given the sad state of the airline industry, you’re not going to see a the start up of a new interisland carrier anytime soon.
But the economy will improve some day and the airline business will bounce back. When that happens, the Aloha trade name could be resurrected by a start-up. Or someone might want to buy the name to fly charters, Garvey said.
The history of marketing is littered with brands that folded, only to come back years later. Life magazine, Coca Cola Classic, or, more recently, Primo Beer, are just several examples.
They’re popular on the road these days, they get 30 to 40 miles per gallon and they hold their value on a trade in.
So why aren’t there more used hybrid cars in Hawaii?
Aaron Campbell, owner of Enviro Cars Hawaii and E Cars Hawaii in Aiea, believes the same forces that make hybrids so popular are the reasons there are so few used models here.
With the price of gasoline rising to more than $4.30 a gallon, few hybrid owners are trading in their models. Owners that do trade in their hybrids, can command a premium over the blue-book value, adding to the price of the used car.
Rising shipping costs, which are brought on by higher fuel prices, also make it too costly to important used cars from the Mainland.
About a year ago, Campbell said he looked into bringing in used hybrids from California but with shipping costs rising to about $1,000 per hybrid car, it didn’t make business sense.
Mainland dealers were also beginning to charge stiff premiums for the popular used cars.
Campbell said he probably could make a small profit exporting used hybrid cars to the Mainland, where the premiums on used models are much higher than they are here.
But that, he said, would defeat the purpose he got in the car sales business, which was to bring in more environmentally sound vehicles in the islands.
“That’s one ethical line I’m not willing to cross,” said Campbell.
Shares of local publicly traded companies declined during the recent second quarter but not as bad as the broader markets.
The Honolulu Advertiser Bloomberg Hawaii Stock Index was down about 4.3 percent during the three months ending June 30. By contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7.4 percent while the Standard and Poor’s 500 was down 10.5 percent.
Of the 11 local stocks that make up the index, seven saw increases in their stock prices. But that was offset by declines in local bank stocks, which continue to be hard-hit by an industry-wide decline.
Central Pacific Financial Corp., reeling from loans to California homebuilders hard-hit by the subprime meltdown, was down more than 43 percent while Bank of Hawaii Corp.’s stock was off 3.7 percent.
Shares of thinly traded Hoku was down about 38 percent during the quarter. In May, Hoku disclosed that a $110 million financing deal with Merrill Lynch to finance a new Idaho plant fell through. Hoku said it will rely on the sales of stock, warrants and debt securities or a combination of them to finance the plant.
Companies heavily dependent on oil — Alexander & Baldwin Inc., Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. and Hawaiian Holdings Inc. — were up slightly during the quarter while Barnwell Industries Inc. — which explores and produces oil and natural gas in Canada — saw its stock rise more than 21 percent.
Rain is coming to town in November. But the return trip might not be in the type of venue that the K-Pop star envisioned for his Honolulu debut.
Rain, who had a supporting role in the summer flop Speed Racer, will have to testify in the federal court trial stemming from the abrupt cancelation of his Aloha Stadium concert last year.
Local promoter, Click Entertainment, is suing Rain, whose real name is Jung Ji-hoon, over the failed concert. U.S. District Judge David Ezra recently ordered Rain’s Korean handlers — JYP Entertainment Co. and Star M Entertainment — to pay Click more than $2 million for the Aloha Stadium fiasco.
Attorney Eric Seitz, who represents Click, said he deposed Rain in South Korea last year but the singer did not answer any substantial questions.
It’ll be interesting to see if Rain can dance his way out of questioning this time — especially if he under oath and in front of a seasoned federal judge.
Aerosmith suit update: Maui Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza is expected to rule next month on whether to grant class-action status on the suit.
Jilted concert-goers sued Aerosmith last year, alleging the bad-boy rock band canceled a sold-out, Sept. 29, 2007 concert on Maui in favor of a larger concert in Chicago and “a lucrative, private concert for Toyota car dealers” that same week at the University of Hawaii-Manoa’s Les Murakami Stadium. (See)
The cancellation cost ticket buyers anywhere between $500,000 and $3 million for travel costs, handling fees and other nonrefunded costs, the suit said. Although buyers received refunds for the face value of the tickets, they did not get their money back for fees and other costs associated with the event, the suit said.
The class-action status increases the potential damages that Aerosmith would have to pay should they lose the suit. The threat of a big payout can provide consumers with more leverage to force a settlement. Stay tuned.
The Galbraith Estate has selected a new broker for 2,100 acres of land in Central Oahu that it is trying to sell.
Bank of Hawaii Corp., the trustee for the estate, today named PM Realty Group as the exclusive broker for the Galbraith lands, replacing Cushman & Wakefield and Sofos Realty Corp.
The property officially goes back on the market on July 28.
PM Realty’s hiring comes weeks after an effort to sell the land to Canadian developer Dennis Blain fell through. Blain’s $40 million offer was terminated by the bank after Blain asked for a 60-day extension.
Despite a soft real estate market, the new sales effort could get a boost from a measure passed by the Legislature this year.
The law, which took effect today, allows owners of ag lands to petition the state Land Use Commission to convert 15 percent of their acreage for urban or rural use so long as they preserve 85 percent of their land for high-quality agricultural uses.
That means that a buyer of the Galbraith lands could seek to convert 315 acres for housing. A developer could build more than 1,000 homes on that much land.
But any buyer would have to compete with public and private sector efforts to preserve the land for agricultural use. A separate measure, which was passed by the state Legislature this year, dedicates $13 million toward that plan.
Based in Houston, PM Realty Group is a privately held, national real estate company with more than 1,300 employees and 20 offices nationwide. In Hawaii, the company manages about 2 million square feet of property and its clients include Chevron, Morgan Stanley, Pacific Guardian Life and the Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii.
