Lynda Gill’s Poipu, Kauai, Hawaii Real Estate at Pacific Ocean Properties

Unemployment Claims Down Air Travel and Occupancy Up

Unemployment claims are down for our state by 7.7%, the current unemployment rate is 6.9% which is lower than the national average of 9.6% and about half of California’s unemployment of 12.2%.  The numbers we want to see up are air travel and occupancy and they came through for the month of July.  Hawaiian Airlines is up 4.4% and the hotel occupancy for the state is up 9.9% with Oahu coming in the big winner at 92.4%!!!!  Kauai is up 1.7% at 68.4%.  Keep in mind that Kauai does not have anything close to the selection that Oahu does so it’s tough to beat or match their numbers.

For real estate sales for this last week island wide CLICK HERE FOR SPREADSHEET 

Bomb Scare At Kukui’ula Shopping Center!!!

A week ago Sunday an anonymous phone call was received by the Kukui’ula Shopping Center security at 3:45 stating there was a bomb on the property.  The stores were shut down and everyone was escorted off the property.  The search for the bomb was conducted by the Kauai Police Department and was completed by 5 p.m., the stores re-opened about a half hour later.

Alaska Airlines Adding Kauai Non-Stop Flight

Alaska Airlines is making the headlines for new flights being added and are also being credited for picking up the slack of the 1.5 million airline seats that the now defunct ATA and Aloha Airlines left.  The airline is solely responsible for 613,085 new Hawaii bound airline seats. 

It’s great to see this airline tapping into markets that are new territory.  With the new Bellingham WA flight they are also tapping into the Canada marketplace.  Bellingham is about a 20-minute drive from the Canadian border and a 2 1/2-hour drive from Sea-Tac Airport.

Yesterday the airline announced this new flight with nonstop daily service between Bellingham, Wash., and Honolulu beginning on Jan 7. That follows on the heels of its announcement in June when Alaska said it would be launching service to Kauai in March next year from the northern California cities of San Jose and Oakland. Hawaii now makes up 15 percent of Alaska’s operations.

The increase in lift from Alaska, Continental, Hawaiian and Delta contributed to a gain in tourist arrivals, which were up 5.7 percent through the first half of this year at 3.4 million visitors.