I wonder if they're celebrating over at SeaTac's Alaska Airlines this week to learn that their business only declined 4.7 percent in January?

In an imploding economy, that's what could pass for good news these days.

Consider the positive part of that bad news released by the airline today:

*That decline in passenger traffic, 4.7 percent, was less than the airline's pullback in capacity, 8.9 percent.

*That means Alaska's planes were fuller in January 2009 than in the relatively prosperous January 2008.
In January last year, the airline filled 68.8 percent of its seats. In January this year, it filled 71.7 percent.

*Compared with most of its competitors, Alaska's figures were encouraging. Southwest Airlines, for instance, saw its January business drop 9.7 percent on a 4.4 percent capacity decline. The airline filled just 62.8 percent of its seats last month compared with 64.2 percent a year ago.

Continental Airlines saw its business fall 11 percent on a 6.5 percent capacity drop. United Airlines nearly matched that with a 10.9 percent traffic decline, but the Chicago-based carrier trimmed its capacity by 10.5 percent.

Pierce County’s median home price in January remained well under where it was a year ago at this time, but figures released Wednesday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service showed a few encouraging signs for homeowners and sellers.

The median price for residential homes and condos came in at $235,000 last month – unchanged from December, up from November, but still down almost 10 percent from January 2008. The county’s median home price has declined year-over-year for 15 of the past 16 months.

The county reported 659 pending sales, up 26 percent from the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of homes for sale dipped 18 percent from last January to 6,183.

In King County, the median price dropped 8 percent over the year to $364,137. Pending sales were down 11 percent over the year and active listings decreased by almost 3 percent.

Both the shrinking inventory and increased pending sales in Pierce County are signs that the market might be stabilizing, said Glenn Crellin, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research in Pullman.

A larger than usual number of homes for sale has been one of the factors keeping prices low. The increase in pending sales, however, suggests that some demand may be coming back, Crellin said.

But he’s not terribly optimistic.

“I’m delighted the numbers are as good as they were, but I’m not sure it’s going to be maintained especially with the national economy in as severe of a recession,” he said.

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Boeing union engineers and technical workers at the company's Everett plant rallied at lunchtime today to offer support to 700 union engineers at the company's Wichita, Kan. plant.

Those engineers vote Thursday whether to accept a Boeing contract offer. The engineers union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, has recommend the Wichita workers turn down Boeing's offer. SPEEA is based in Tukwila.

Boeing workers in Wichita have been working under a contract extension since early December.

The union claims the Wichita proposal offers annual raises two percent lower than the five percent raises union professionals won here last year. The Wichita contract offer also eliminates the company's defined benefit pension program for new hires.

Boeing attempted to get workers in the Puget Sound area to accept that pension change here, but later withdrew that proposal in favor of the existing pension arrangemet.

Upstart San Francisco-based carrier Virgin America has lost $270 million since it began service 18 months ago, new figures from the airline reveal.

In the first three quarters of 2008 alone, the company, backed in part by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, has lost $175.4 million.

The privately held airline, which was forced to disclose the financial information by the U.S. Department of Transportation, said the losses were in line with its expectations of the costs of starting a new airline.

While the losses may be leaving Virgin America's investors unhappy, its fight to steal market share from established carriers such as SeaTac-based Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines, has created a fare war along the West Coast.

Virgin America is now advertising Sea-Tac-to-San Francisco fares as little as $49 each way not including taxes. On a connecting route to San Diego from Sea-Tac, it is offering a $59 one-way fare and a $59 fare to Los Angeles.

Alaska and other competitors have matched those fares, a fact that is not helping their bottom line finances.

Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey D. Goltz, a 30-year veteran of the attorney general's office, is the new chairman of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.

"I have no doubt that Jeff has the leadership and strong ethical background that is required to successfully manage this dynamic and complex agency," said Gov. Chris Gregoire, herself a former Washington attorney general.

Goltz has an extensive background with the WUTC where he served as division chief for the attorney general's office for 11 years.

Goltz also served with the Department of Ecology as an assistant attorney general and division chief. He also served in the state's revenue department.

The WUTC regulates utility and transportation rates throughout the state.

Amazon.com Inc.began offering game downloads, stepping up competition with Yahoo! Inc. and other gaming Web sites, Bloomberg News reports.

Consumers can download and play more than 600 games for $9.99 each or less, the Seattle-based company announced Tuesday.

Amazon.com has expanded into electronic content over the past few years, offering music downloads and streaming videos. In October, the company bought Reflexive Entertainment Inc., which makes and distributes video games.

The service is "our first step into the downloadable games space," the company said in a blog posting. Every game comes with a free 30-minute trial, Bloomberg said.