Boeing debuted the latest version of its popular 777 airliner today, but what the company called "a minor telemetry issue" kept the first flight from being flawless.

The 777 Freighter took off from Everett's Paine Field where it was built about 10:30 a.m. today, but failed to show up at Seattle's Boeing Field at the appointed hour.

Instead the first example of the new plane landed back at Paine Field leaving news cameras waiting at Boeing Field without footage of its first landing.

The plane flew out over the Strait of Juan de Fuca and flew loop patterns along the Washington coast for nearly three hours before returning to Everett at 1:38 p.m., Boeing said.

Federal Aviation Administration rules required the plane to return to its "airport of origin" because of the communications issues between the test equipment on board and Boeing's telemetry monitor room.

"There were no airplane-related issues," said Boeing spokesman Tim Bader.

Boeing has been plagued with problems in recent months including a 15-month delay in the first flight of the 787 Dreamliner.

If $4.40-a-gallon gas isn't enough to convince you to take the Sounder to your job in Seattle, maybe the latest findings of a worldwide parking survey will.

Colliers International says its latest survey shows parking rates have risen nationwide for the fifth year in a row. The increase was 2.8 percent.

The June survey of 64 U.S. cities (not including Tacoma) shows the median price of monthly parking in Seattle is now $260 a month, 71 percent higher than the median U.S. figure of $153.79.

That price is a bargain compared with the five top U.S. averages:

New York City Midtown, $585
New York City Downtown, $462
Boston, $460.00
San Francisco, $350
Chicago, $310

But even those high rates pale in comparison with some foreign parking rates. For instance:

London City, $1,166
London, West End, $1,135
Sydney, $774
Hong Kong, $742
Perth, Australia $610

San Francisco's Virgin America Airlines took the top spot of Travel & Leisure Magazine's new list of the top domestic airlines.

That list is dominated by smaller, low-fare carriers.

Southwest and Alaska airlines, seventh and ninth of the list, are the only so-called "legacy carriers" on the listing.

SeaTac's Horizon Air took the number 10 spot on the magazine's rank.

Virgin America started service this spring from Sea-Tac to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The Boeing Co. has won $12 billion in orders from two Middle Eastern airlines during the first day of the world's largest air show.

New low-cost carrier FlyDubai has ordered 54 of Boeing's popular 737-800 single-aisle jets worth $4 billion at list prices.

Fifty of those planes will come directly from Boeing. The remaining four will be leased from Babcock and Brown Aircraft Management. The planes will be delivered between 2009 and 2015.

The Chicago-based Boeing also announced an $8 billion order from Etihad Airways. The United Arab Emirates airline is buying 35 787 Dreamliners and 10 Boeing 777s. The carrier also ordered 55 aircraft from Boeing rival Airbus. The airline said it will purchase 20 Airbus A320s, 25 A350XWBs and 10 Airbus A380s.

Etihad has also taken options on another 25 787s and 10 777s. Aircraft will be delivered beginning in 2011. Deliveries will continue through 2020.

Grocery and drug store chains have long provided in-store brands as their own, cheaper alternative to better-known name brand products. But, according to a story at The New York Times, Safeway has twisted the concept to its advantage by making a concerted effort to create a brand from its own line of goods. The ultimate goal: Getting the O Organics line in the other grocery stores where you shop.

Here's an excerpt of the story:

But rather than becoming the alternative to established brands, Safeway wanted O Organics to be the established brand. The company brought in executives from consumer-product giants like Procter & Gamble and Nestlé, gave the line a look that stands on its own (although the color choices may look familiar to anyone who knows the Whole Foods house brand) and hired the ad agency DDB in Chicago to create print and television advertising to help build the image of a full line of healthful, organic products in a wide range of categories. The company says the line is on track to hit sales of $400 million in 2008. In 2007, Safeway followed a similar strategy with Eating Right, which is positioned as balancing taste and nutrition, with a package design that highlights the most impressive aspect (“low fat,” for example) of the 250 products in the line, including frozen dinners and cereal.

The company’s research suggests that shoppers think of the lines as independent brands that sell in Safeway by some exclusive arrangement — and that was the goal.

A new 110-130-seat single-aisle jetliner announced this weekend by Canadian planemaker Bombardier won't be a threat to Boeing's 737, the head of Boeing's commercial airplane division told reporters today.

Scott Carson, speaking at a news conference at the Farnborough Air Show in England, said he doesn't expect much effect on Boeing's best-selling aircraft.

"We don't anticipate any particular impact on single-aisle sales. We're largely sold out of the 737 through 2014 anyway," Carson told reports at the big show.

Bombardier announced Sunday that it is proceeding with the C-Series aircraft with the commitment from Lufthansa to order 30 of the aircraft.

The plane, whose body will be built in China and whose wings will be constructed in Northern Ireland, will be assembled in Montreal.

Bombardier C-Series

Kansas City had made a determined pitch to win the final assembly site with $240 million in incentives to the plane-maker.

The C-series aircraft will be be powered by Pratt & Whitney's new geared turbofan jet engines. The geared engines are more efficient than conventional jet propulsion plants.

The C-series will come in two versions, a 110-seat model and a 130-seat model.

=> Read more!

Longshore union and terminal operators are back at the bargaining table this week in Tacoma after a dispute over local issues erupted into a work stoppage at the Port of Tacoma's Pierce County Terminal Friday night.

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies, terminal operators and stevedoring companies on the West Coast said the walkout kept 82 export containers from being loaded on an Evergreen Lines ship before it departed.

Longshore spokesman Craig Merrilees said longshore workers at Tacoma Local 23 became frustrated at the pace of bargaining over local issues Friday after a PMA negotiator left the bargaining table.

The union posted pickets at the terminal, the Port of Tacoma's largest, late Friday night.

The pickets were down and both sides were back at the bargaining table Saturday, the union spokesman said.

The International Longshore & Warehouse Union and the PMA have been operating without a contract since July 1.

The PMA said work was also slowed at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in California because workers there decided to take their coffee breaks simultaneously rather than stagger them as was customary. The simultaneous coffee breaks halted all work at the docks during the duration of the 15-minute breaks.

Merrilees said workers there were similarly concerned about local issues now being talked out at the bargaining table.

"The important thing is that the main negotiations are proceeding. That's the focus of our efforts," he said.

A lockout six years ago halted virtually all West Coast importing threatening to damage the U.S. economy during the critical stockpiling period for Christmas imports.