EADS Composites Atlantic, a fabricator of composite parts for aircraft, has laid off 20 workers because of the slowdown in Boeing's assembly of the 787 Dreamliner.

Composites Atlantic is owned in part by European Aeronautic Defense and Space, Airbus's parent company.

"We just got ahead of what Boeing's other suppliers were producing," Kevin Steck, Composites Atlantic's vice-president for business development said today. Steck heads Composite Atlantic's Kent office.

The Lunenberg, Nova Scotia-based composites manufacturer had built parts for 20 of Boeing's 787s, but Boeing has yet to finish assembling even the first of the new planes at its Everett plant.

Boeing has three times delayed the first flight of the 787. Boeing says the plane will likely fly for the first time in late June, but analysts expect the company will announce yet another delay because of problems with the plane's wing box, wiring and unavailable parts.

The layoffs amount to a fraction of Composite Atlantic's 400-member Nova Scotia workforce, said Steck.

"We view this as temporary situation. We hope to get the workers back on the payroll as soon as Boeing gets its assembly problems worked out."

Starbucks may have to pay to more than $100 million to baristas for back tips and interest the coffee chain paid to shift supervisors, The Associated Press reports.

Here's the rest of the story out of California:

San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett also issued an injunction that prevents Starbucks’ shift supervisors from sharing in future tips, saying state law prohibits managers and supervisors from sharing in employee gratuities.

Starbucks spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil said the company planned an immediate appeal of the ruling, calling it “fundamentally unfair and beyond all common sense and reason.”

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Gibson Guitar is going after the popular "Guitar Hero" game with the newest among its lawsuits claiming that Harmonix, MTV Networks and Electronic Arts are violating a patent the guitar maker holds, according to The Associated Press.

The new case, filed Thursday in Nashville, relates to the same virtual-reality patent involved in the lawsuit Gibson filed earlier this week against six major retailers that sell the Activision Inc. "Guitar Hero" game.

Gibson has tried to stop video game publisher Activision from selling all versions of the game, claiming it too closely matches a device Gibson patented in 1999.

This time, Gibson says it is by developing, promoting and distributing "Rock Band" that Harmonix, MTV Networks and Electronic Arts are infringing on the patent.

Harmonix also created and developed some of the "Guitar Hero" games.

Representatives with the three companies did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment on Friday.

The following may be good news or bad news depending on your feelings about cell phone usage etiquette.

Emirates Airlines, one the emerging forces in world aviation, announced today it will begin allowing passengers to use their cell phones in flight.

The Dubai-based carrier, which is building a Mideast hub for long-distance flights, has installed a system in one of its A340 jets that lets passengers use their cells without interfering with the plane's electronics. It plans to expand that service to more planes as the year progresses.

The system allows the pilots to shut down cell calls at will, either when they think the calls would create a disturbance such as during night flights or if the mobile electronics were somehow suspected of interfering with the plane's instruments or navigation equipment.

Proposals to allow cell phone usage in flight in the U.S. have elicited strong opinions from passengers and flight attendants.

Some passengers consider cell phones vital business tools that should be allowed during flight. Other passengers, already annoyed by loud-voiced cell phone users in elevators, restaurants, theaters and other places, say they don't want their seat mates holding loud conversations during flights.

Flight attendant organizations, seeing the potential for passenger disputes that they'd have to referee, have opposed allowing the phones' usage.

The weather in Hawaii may almost always be warm and sunny, but the climate for airlines remains turbulent.

One of Hawaii's two major airlines, Aloha, today filed for bankruptcy protection again. The carrier emerged from a previous bankruptcy reorganization in 2006.

The airline said it intends to keep operating while reorganizing.

The airline cited two factors pushing it into filing: the high price of fuel and the fare war started by Mesa Air Group's Go Airlines.

Both Aloha and Hawaii's other major carrier, Hawaiian, were forced to match Go's low fares after the carrier started service among the islands after Aloha emerged from bankruptcy.

Fares fell to as low as $29 because of the competition.

Hawaiian itself has in recent years undergone a bankruptcy reorganization. Both Hawaiian and Aloha sued Mesa over allegedly "predatory pricing."

Hawaiian won an $80 million judgment against Mesa. An appeal is pending. The Aloha-Mesa case is still in court.
Aloha also alleges in its suit that Mesa illegally used proprietary information about Aloha the airline had provided it while it was looking for financing to emerge from bankruptcy.

Mesa itself has lost money on the Hawaii service.

In its Thursday release of new orders, Boeing Co. recorded orders for seven 737 single-aisle airliners as of Tuesday. All customers for those planes are yet unidentified.

Those orders raise Boeing's total jetliner sales for the year to 282.

The best-seller among the planes in the Boeing repertoire remains the 737 with 180 sales this year. Second is the still-popular 787 with 75 orders. Third on the list is the long-range 777 with 26 orders.

The 747 has garnered only one order this year. The 767 has none.