Shares in Tacoma-based Columbia Banking System fell more than 40 percent today after bank officials announced in an early-morning conference call with analysts that the quality of Columbia’s real-estate loan portfolio continues to deteriorate.

The stock closed at $10.80, down $7.45 for the day and 63.67 percent so far this year. At one point during Thursday trading, Columbia slipped to a 52-week low of $9.30.

The stock hit its previous low of $10.29 on Oct. 9, 2002.

Following the market close today, Columbia President and CEO Melanie Dressel said in an interview, “Fortunately, we don’t manage the company on the day-to-day stock price.”

“I’ve never seen that,” said Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Gary Schminkey, of the sudden drop in share value.

The Thursday morning call with stock analysts came after a press release issued Wednesday afternoon announcing that Columbia was making a second-quarter provision for loan losses of $15.4 million “due to an increase in non-accrual loans resulting from the slowing Pacific Northwest economic environment.”

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US Airways, at the forefront of airborne cost reduction programs, has told Hollywood studios it won't be showing onboard movies beginning this fall on domestic flights.

The cutback will remove another cost item for the Phoenix-based airline. The airline said the number of passengers paying $5 to rent headphones has decreased, and the 500-pound weight of the movie-playing equipment is adversely affecting its planes' fuel mileage.

The change will save the airline about $10 million a year, a US Airways spokesman said.

US Airways already charges fees for both the first and second checked bags, and in-air refreshments such as sodas and juices now cost passengers $2. The airline has upped the price of alcoholic beverages to $7.

The airline has increased its fee for changes to non-refundable tickets to $150 for domestic tickets and $250 for transatlantic and transpacific tickets.

The movie halt, like all the other cost-saving measures, was driven by the high cost of fuel, the airline said.

The Boeing Co. said continuing issues with delays in delivery of six airborne early warning and control planes to Australia's air force will cost the company $250 million in the next quarter.

The company told investors to expect a charge against earnings of 22 cents a share. Even so, the aerospace company said it still expects earnings per share will be in the range of $5.70 to $5.85 a share for 2008 and $6.80 to $7.00 for 2009. Boeing will announce second quarter earnings on July 23.

The planes, based on the Boeing 737-700 airframe, contain complex detection and communication gear. It's the performance and integration of those electronic systems that have put the program three years behind schedule.

The first of the aircraft flew in 2004 for Australia's Wedgetail program.

Boeing said it will deliver the first two planes in July of next year with degraded capabilities. The remaining four planes will be delivered with full capabilities in 2010.

If you're looking for a quick way to get to Kamloops, B.C. and the Sun Peaks ski area this winter, your quest just became a mission impossible.

SeaTac's Horizon Air, which has operated ski season flights from Seattle to the British Columbia town northeast of Vancouver since 2003, says it won't be making those trips this winter.

"Sky high fuel prices, a U.S. economy that's in the doldrums. In this economic environment, we just couldn't see how it would be possbile to operate these flights profitably this year," said Horizon's vice president of marketing and communications, Dan Russo.

Alternate air connections are available through Vancouver and Calgary. With a good connection, the total duration of your journey through Vancouver is something like 3 1/2 hours. Through Calgary, it's closer to six.

By car, the 325-mile trips takes about the same as the flight through Calgary provided the border crossing is brief and the weather cooperative.

Starbucks Corp. is creating new promotions to help get you into its stores more often and to counter falling sales.

“One of the things we’re consistently hearing in this day and age (is), even though budgets are tight, they still don’t want to give up life’s little luxuries,” said Brad Stevens, vice president of customer relationship management at Starbucks, in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. “They consider Starbucks one of those luxuries.”

No word yet on what they are going to do here in the Puget Sound region.

UPDATE: The Seattle P-I reports today that in Seattle customers who buy a full-price drink in the morning can get a 16-ounce cold beverage for $2 after 2 p.m.

Starbucks will say that the majority of its more than 11,000 U.S. stores will offer some sort of deal between now and early September, The Associated Press reports.

Here are some examples from around the country:

Through July 23, Starbucks is giving away 12-ounce iced coffees on Wednesdays to customers in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and Detroit who present an “iced brewed coffee card,” a reusable voucher distributed in stores and newspaper inserts.

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Spokane will lose non-stop flights to four cities when Houston-based ExpressJet Airlines stops flying Sept. 2.

The 17-month-old carrier used 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145 regional jets to fly between Spokane and Reno, Nev. and Ontario, San Diego and Sacramento in California.

The airline will shut down its system, which connected medium-sized cities with non-stop flights, because of high fuel costs for the relatively small planes.

Jim Ream, ExpressJet president and chief executive officer, said, "If we had any other choice, we would not take this difficult action. However, rising fuel prices has made the operation impossible to sustain."

ExpressJet this month also reached agreement with Delta Airlines to halt flying for that carrier. That severing of relationships means an end to Delta flights between Sea-Tac and Portland and Los Angeles.

ExpressJet says it will return 39 jets to lessors. It will continue to do contract flying for Continental Airlines.

ExpressJet's demise as an independent carrier could be good news for carriers operating connecting flights through Seattle such as Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and Horizon Air.

The 33,000-plus passengers who flew on those four carriers to those West Coast destinations would likely fly to Seattle to take flights to those destinations now that non-stop service is no longer an option.