$16.1M in bag fees collected
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s largest airline has raked in $16.1 million in luggage fees.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the revenue was collected by Hawaiian Airlines during the first quarter in fees from checked, oversized and overweight baggage.
Bag fees helped the airline report a first-quarter profit of $7.3 million, making up 3.7 percent of about $436 million in revenue.
The airline stands to top the company record of $56.6 million in fees collected last year. The first-quarter bag fee collections were up 19.4 percent from the year-earlier period.
Hawaiian spokeswoman Ann Botticelli says the increase was primarily from more passengers and fuller North America flights.
Baggage fees collected by major U.S. airlines in the first quarter totaled about $816 million.
Honolulu officer killed in crash
HONOLULU (AP) — A Honolulu police officer is dead after a motorcycle crash during a training exercise.
Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha says 39-year-old Chad Morimoto was participating in motorcycle escort training Monday at Mililani District Park.
Morimoto had been with the department 8 years and became a motorcycle officer in 2010.
Kealoha says Morimoto was practicing escorting dignitary motorcades when his motorcycle slid out from under him and he hit a curb.
The previous line-of-duty death for the police force was Officer Garret Davis. Davis died earlier this year after his patrol car was hit from behind by a pickup truck.
In September last year, Officer Eric Fontes was killed while assisting another officer with a traffic stop on Farrington Highway near Ko Olina.
Mixed results for zone schools
HONOLULU (AP) — An experiment targeting low-performing Hawaii schools as part of a $75-million Race to the Top grant is showing mixed results.
Some schools in zones on west Oahu’s Waianae Coast and in the Kau-Pahoa region of the Big Island have seen big improvements or small gains. But there are also a few that declined in math and reading proficiency.
The schools would be most affected by Race to the Top reforms. Revised teacher evaluations using student performance were piloted last year in the zones.
Scores declined in two of the nine Big Island zone schools while eight saw 5 percentage point increases. Scores in math or reading declined at four of nine Waianae zone schools. Proficiency increased by 5 percentage points at three schools.
