A dozen gas stations in the Tacoma area have joined the price-cutting frenzy this week after a Puyallup Tribe gas station late last week cut regular prices to $3.99 a gallon.

According to tacomagasprices.com 12 stations were selling gas below $4 a gallon Tuesday in Pierce County. The prices dipped as low $3.92 a gallon at the Safeway at 707 S. 56th.

The Flying J truck stop on Port of Tacoma Road was just a cent higher, and the perennial low price ARCO at Puyallup and Portland avenues matched that price.

The average price in the Tacoma area was considerably higher, $4.177, according to AAA Washington. That's down 1.1 cent from Monday and 18 cents from a month ago. The price still has a long way to fall to reach the price a year ago, $2.922. The highest recorded average price this summer was $4.368 in Tacoma.

Statewide, the cost of a gallon was higher on average Tuesday, the AAA reported. The state average was $4.22.

The fare war between Alaska Airlines and two new entrants in the Seattle-Southern California shuttle business continues into the fall.

Both JetBlue, which flies between Long Beach and Sea-Tac and Virgin America, which flies Los Angeles-Seattle, have posted discount fares for the fall, and Alaska has generally matched them.

Despite airline price rises throughout the domestic route structure, you can still buy a Sea-Tac LAX or Long Beach trip for a little more than $200 on some days.

United Airlines, the other incumbent carrier in the California-Seattle business, is cutting back flights and appears to be raising fares to cope with higher fuel prices.

Alaska Airlines and its regional sister air line, Horizon, have formed a new partnership with Korean Air to share flights and to grant mileage credit to frequent fliers on their mileage programs.

The new codeshare agreements mean that travelers on Korean Air to West Coast gateways can book Alaska and Horizon flights onward to other destinations under a Korean Air flight number.

The mileage program alliance means that Korean Air flight miles can be credited to Alaska Mileage Plan accounts. The alliance also allows members of each airline's mileage plans to get free flights or upgrades on each other's flights.

The agreement begins Friday with mileage earning and redemption set to start Sept. 3.

Korean Air offers four weekly flights from Sea-Tac to Seoul.

Orlando's AirTran Airways says it has reached an agreement with Boeing to defer the delivery of four Boeing 737-700 airliners from 2009 to 2015.

The airline made that announcement today as it reported a second-quarter loss of $13.5 million. The airline earlier had deferred delivery of 18 other Boeing 737s to 2013 and 2014.

The airline planes to cut its capacity in the rest of the year by seven to eight percent by canceling its least profitable flying.

Meanwhile in India, low-cost airline SpiceJet said it is negotiating with Boeing to defer develiveries of new 737s.

The airline said it may seek to lease the new aircraft rather than purchase them outright. The percentage of seats filled on SpiceJet aircraft last month was 78 compared with 90 percent in the same month last year.

Boeing has warned that the present fuel cost squeeze and economic slowdown may affect its production schedules as airlines dial back the need for new planes.

But with orders for between six and seven years of production and a diverse mix of airlines, the company has said its unlikely to cut employment or production pace.

Boeing isn't alone in being touched by airline woes. Its biggest rival, Airbus, has seen similar deferrals and order cancellations.

Union longshore workers and a consortium of shippers and terminal operators have reached a tentative contract agreement covering 29 West Coast ports including Tacoma.

That agreement, if it is ratified by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, will prevent a feared work stoppage that would have been devastating the U.S. economy.

Neither side in the agreement would yet discuss specifics other than to say the new contract will have a six-year term.

There was also no word this morning about whether local issues such as the one that caused a brief walkout in Tacoma earlier this month have been settled.

The agreement covers some 25,000 workers. The PMA says its statistics show that regular full-time union members make an average of $136,000 annually and enjoy generous benefits.

Longshore union officials say those figures don't reflect the true picture because many members don't get fulltime work.

A 10-day lockout in 2002 shut down West Coast docks through which much of the nation's imported goods flow. The lockout was halted by President Bush after it inflicted millions of dollars in damage to the economy as retailers ran short of goods to sell and manufacturers shut down plants because of the lack of imported parts.