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Warren Luke, chairman, president and CEO of Hawaii National Bank, has been re-elected to treasurer of the American Bankers Association, a national trade organization of financial institutions representing more than $13.3 trillion in assets.

LOS ANGELES, CA (MARKET WIRE) Los Angeles city and airport officials have unveiled architectural vision design concepts for the west side of the Tom Bradley International Terminal and a new midfield concourse at Los angeles international Airport (LAX).

Holidaymakers who have an interest in unusual events will be flocking to Australia in January for the annual Tunarama Festival.This tuna-themed event will be held in Port Lincoln, in the state of South Australia, from January 24th to 26th to coincide with the Australia Day celebrations.The highlight of the whole festival is the John West Tuna Toss competition, which sees both male and female competitors attempting to fling a fish weighing between eight and ten kilos as far as they can.People travel from all over the world to take part in the event, which offers a top prize of AU$7,000 (£3,000) and has a world record length of 37.23 metres for participants to aim for.There are plenty of other attractions on offer at the Tunarama Festival, including markets selling food, art and crafts, as well as entertainment stalls.People planning to travel to Australia for the event can catch flights to Adelaide with carriers including British Airways and Qantas.More information on the Tunarama Festi

The new Paphos International Airport in Cyprus began hosting flights this week and encountered no operational problems, according to reports.Prior to the full opening on november 17th, operating company Hermes carried out a number of tests to ensure there would be no teething problems, including the mock use of the airport's facilities.Hermes spokesman Adam Aspris told the Cyprus Mail that the pre-launch checks were effective and the first full day of operations was completed without a hitch."We are very pleased about the first day of operation and all the procedures ran smoothly," he said."There were no major problems, and the passengers seemed pleased with the level and quality of service they received."The first departure from the new airport was a Cyprus Airways flight to Heathrow Airport, while the first arrival was a Finnair service from Helsinki.Some 14 flights landed and the same number took off from the new Paphos Airport on its first day. In its first year of operations, the

SAN CARLOS, CA (MARKET WIRE) Mark Logic(R) Corporation, provider of the industry's leading XML server, today announced that JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU) has selected Mark Logic as the technology foundation for the JetBlue Corporate Publications system -- the application powering the airline's JetBlue University corporate safety and compliance initiatives. As part of JetBlue University, the company's consolidated learning department, JetBlue Corporate Publications is a new content assembly and delivery application housing a wide range of cross-departmental intellectual property, including regulatory

SEATTLE, WA (MARKET WIRE) Yapta.com today announced the launch of its frequent-flier award seat alert service, enabling travelers to be notified when they can use their frequent-flier miles to book an award seat that becomes available on a specific flight. The award seat alerts are provided in tandem with Yapta's airfare price change alerts that, to date, have notified hundreds of thousands of travelers to more than $90 million in airfare savings. Travelers receiving Yapta's award seat alerts are notified when award seats are available for the minimum mileage possible, regardless of seat class or program mileage

BELLEVUE, WA (MARKET WIRE) Esterline Corporation (NYSE: ESL) (www.esterline.com) today announced an agreement to acquire NMC Group (Nylon Molding Corporation) for approximately $90 million. NMC is a designer and manufacturer of specialized fasteners for the aerospace/defense industry. Completion of the transaction is expected in 30 to 45 days, contingent upon Hart-Scott-Rodino approval and other customary closing conditions. Esterline will fund the acquisition with available cash.

IRVING, TX (MARKET WIRE) AAA Texas forecasts a small decline in the number of Americans and Texans traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Approximately 41 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this Thanksgiving holiday weekend, a decrease of 600,000 travelers (1.4 percent) from last year's total of 41.6 million, while the number of Texans traveling is expecting to decline by 1.2 percent to 3.18 million. This is the first decline in Thanksgiving holiday travel since 2002 and is the fourth consecutive travel holiday this year with a year-to-year decline in the number of travelers.

AirTran Airways expects to post a loss for 2008, its first annual loss since 1999, the company’s chief financial officer said Tuesday at a conference in New York.

Local regional carrier Comair has appointed John Bendoraitis, former head of Compass Airlines, to succeed its president John Selvaggio, who is retiring effective immediately. (NWA) (DAL)