GE Commercial Aviation Services is in discussion with The Boeing Co. to buy as many as 50 of its 737-800 single-aisle jets, Bloomberg News reported today.

At list prices, the 737s would cost GE about $3.5 billion. Big customers such as GE, however, commonly negotiate lower-than-list prices with Boeing for larger quantities of planes.

GE planes to lease the aircraft both to legacy carriers seeking to upgrade their fleets to more fuel-efficient craft and to startup airlines in Asia.

GE ordered 53 737s in December from Boeing. The market for single-aisle jets such as Boeing's 737 and Airbus's A320 has expanded quickly in recent years. Both companies saw more than 500 orders for those jets last year.

Boeing builds its 737 in Renton.

Don’t worry. Move on. There’s nothing to see. Go about your business. Even though we are awash with all this hubbub about a recession, banks remain sound.

So say the latest quarterly numbers from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Using data from 97 Washington banks, the agency says total assets rose to $75.053 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $65.464 billion in the same quarter of 2006, and $72.735 billion in the third quarter of 2007.

On the downside, past-due and non-accrual loans as a percent of total loans rose from 0.54 percent a year before to 1.42 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. Return on assets fell from 0.97 percent to 0.83 percent, while net interest margin fell to 4.49 percent (whereas a year before, the margin had risen 4.85 percent).

Construction and development loans (as a percentage of capital) rose from 133.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 to 172 percent in the same quarter last year. Perhaps as a part of a mirror to that figure, the agency notes that multifamily home permits in Washington – which had fallen 26.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 over 2005 – rose 41.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 over 2006.

Single-family home permits remained on the decline, down 27.4 percent in the fourth quarter.

New open skies agreements between the U.S. and foreign countries are stimulating new airline connections between mid-sized cities here and overseas.

Sea-Tac has benefited from that trend, adding new routes to Frankfurt, Paris, London, Mexico City and Beijing.

Two new airlines affiliated with established Austrialian carriers, JetStar and V Australia, have expressed possible interest in setting up routes from the Puget Sound area and the land down under. JetStar is affiliated with Qantas and V Australia with Virgin Blue.

Somewhat ironically, the delay in the first Boeing 787s to Qantas could impact the start of such a route, airline analysts are saying.

Qantas is a big customer for the 787 Dreamliner, a plane with the range and the smaller capacity to serve such a startup route.

V Australia has ordered Boeing 777-300ERs, but without the competitive pressure from JetStar, it could serve more heavily traveled routes first before considering Seattle.

After a month-long series of successful airline ticket increases, the market for higher fare trips may have hit a plateau.

A fare-increase initiative started by Delta Air Lines last week has only attracted one follower, United Air Lines, and Delta itself is pulling back from the higher fares.

Airlines post their new fares with a computerized airfare clearing house. If their competitors match those fares within a few days, the fare increases "stick."

Delta's initiative called for a $10 roundtrip increase on hundreds of routes across its system.

Unless all the major carriers imitate the initiator of the fare increases, the fare increase is usually doomed because carriers quoting the higher prices see traffic fleeing to lower-cost airlines.

The airlines' latest increases have largely been driven by the higher cost of jet fuel, which has mimicked the increase in the cost of gasoline.

About that Economic Stimulus Package check...

Need help? Don’t know if you’re eligible? You say you haven’t filed a return in the last 10 years but you still want some free money?

The IRS wants to help you with your ESP – by opening its offices in Western Washington for a pair of what the agency calls “Super Saturdays.”

The IRS office in Tacoma – 1201 Pacific Ave. – will open its doors on March 29 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. and on April 12 from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. to assist those eligible in filing returns. (The office is also open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., and will serve special hours between March 31 and April 15 between 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.)

Some 380,000 people in Washington who qualify for the ESP rebates may not typically file a return, the IRS says. To qualify, you need to have a net tax liability on your 2007 return or have at least $3,000 of qualifying income in any combination – which may include Social Security retirement or other benefits, pension or disability payments and other forms of income.

You won’t get a check, the IRS says, if you don’t file a 2007 return, if you’re claimed as a dependent, if you’re a nonresident alien or if you don’t have a Social Security number.

For more information, visit www.irs.gov or call an IRS office – in the South Sound in Tacoma, Olympia or Silverdale.