Midwest Airlines, which gained a loyal following in the nation's midsection with wider seats and warm chocolate chip cookies, is cutting back on one of its signature amenities to bolster revenues.

Midwest, which flies from Sea-Tac to Kansas City and Milwaukee, is adding additional seats to a majority of its rows on its Boeing 717s.

The airline will now have 12 rows configured with five seats across in a 3-by-2 configuration and 10 rows of four-across seats in its traditional 2-by-2 layout.

The airline is renaming its roomier seats as Midwest Class and charging a premium of $25 to $75 per flight over economy fares for those seats. Those seats will have 35 to 36 inches between the rows while the narrower economy seats will have 32 inches of legroom.

Southwest Airlines' new wintertime flight schedule shows the profitable Dallas-based carrier trimming 196 flights from its daily schedule while adding only six.

Those schedule changes, effective Jan. 11, include cancellation of Southwest's non-stop flight from Seattle to Nashville and elimination of two daily flights between Sea-Tac and Chicago's Midway Airport. Two flights will remain on that routing.

The 190-flight decrease represents about 5.6 percent of Southwest's daily 3,400 flights.

Most major airlines are cutting flights during the slack winter travel season. Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King told the Dallas Morning News that the cutbacks would help the airline bolster its reserve fleet to cope with winter storms.

Southwest's Seattle-Nashville flight is the only nonstop flight by any airline between the two cities.

New Air & Tours Group, a fledgling Canadian airline, has picked Boeing's 737 Next Generation aircraft for its fleet, the company said today.

The Calgary-based airline originally had considered leasing McDonnell Douglas MD-80s for its fleet, but reconsidered when fuel prices soared.

Lease rates are low for the MD-80s, which airlines are retiring rapidly, but fuel consumption is high relative to Boeing's latest 737s.

New Air apparently plans to follow the model created in the U.S. by Allegiant Airlines, which has remained profitable by serving leisure destinations from smaller airports such as Bellingham. Allegiant's fleet is made up of MD-80s.

The 737NGs are about 20 percent less fuel thirsty than those planes and are used extensively by such successful low-cost carriers as Southwest Airlines and Canada's WestJet.

New Air plans to lease its first 737s rather than buy them.

A computer problem in a Federal Avaiation Administration center near Atlanta is creating flight delays throughout the country, CNN is reporting.

The center is one of two that processes airline flight plans.

The computer failures aren't affecting planes already in the air which have already filed flight plans, but it is preventing some flights from departing.

At Sea-Tac so far problems are minimal. Only two flights, a Delta flight bound from Sea-Tac to Atlanta and a Southwest Airlines flight to Las Vegas were reporting delays.

That flight was due to depart Sea-Tac at 12:55 p.m.. Its departure is now delayed until 1:30 p.m. according to FlightStats.com. During the 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. hour, only one plane among dozens scheduled for departure was late. A Southwest Airlines flight to Las Vegas postponed its departure by 20 minutes. It wasn't clear whether that delay was related to the computer issues or another problem.

Atlanta, the world's most heavily used airport, is reporting excessive delays, and US Airways hub at Charlotte, N.C. is reporting less severe problems.

Radar used to track flights in the air is functioning as normal, so the computer problems apparently aren't causing any safety concerns, said CNN.

Oil spill workers in Tacoma are back on the job today after a four-day strike against their employer, the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC).

The three MSRC workers, who maintain oil-spill response vessels, skimmers and booms in Commencement Bay, went on strike last week to protest what they said was illegal discrimination and intimidation by MSRC.

The Tacoma operation is one of only two in MSRC’s national network that is unionized.

Despite two years of negotiations, the workers and MSRC management have been unable to reach agreement on contract terms.

The workers complained that MSRC was punishing them for unionizing by refusing to let them participate in spill-response training exercises.

MSRC maintained that the training in question was for beginners in the field and that it was unnecessary for the experienced Tacoma crew.

Klete Freudenstein, one of the striking workers, said the strike served its purpose.

"We made our point against discrimination loud and clear,” he said. “Now we look forward to sitting down with MSRC, working out a first contract and working together to build a more effective response organization."

MSRC representatives were not immediately available for comment.