The Biz Buzz

The News Tribune Business Team will keep you updated on what's happening in the South Sound and beyond. Check here for news about economic development, aerospace, shopping and much more.

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Contributors

Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.

C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.

John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.

Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.

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Monday, June 15th, 2009
Posted by John Gillie @ 03:06:28 pm

Sea-Tac Airport's third runway, whose construction was delayed for years by legal challenges, is back in court again.

Two Burien and one City of SeaTac resident have sued the airport's owner, the Port of Seattle, contending the new runway's airline traffic is diminishing the value of their homes and those of dozens of other residents near the airport.

The three are asking King County Superior Court to make their suit a class action on behalf of all of those Sea-Tac neighbors affected by the aircraft noise.

The three contend that third runway usage far exceeds what the port projected when it proposed the runway 15 years ago.

The Port of Seattle didn't immediately return calls asking for comment.

The traffic on the 8,500-foot-long runway is higher than anticipated in part because the port shut down the airport's longest runway earlier this spring.

The port is replacing that long runway for the first time since it was built in 1943. That runway is expected to be open again this fall.

The three residents claim the port misled them into believing that the new runway would only be used when the weather was causing delays on the other runways.

In addition to monetary damages, the suit asks the court to prohibit planes from flying over their homes at less than 1,500 feet and from entering the airspace over their homes more than once an hour. The suit seeks a curfew between 10 p.m. and 9 a.m. weekdays and from 10 p.m. Fridays until 9 a.m. Mondays.

Posted by John Gillie @ 12:48:11 pm

The second of six test Boeing 787 Dreamliners has moved out of the assembly hall and onto the flight line at Paine Field in Everett.

The aircraft, painted in the colors of launch customer All Nippon Airways, will begin fuel testing today.

The first test Dreamliner is expected to make its first flight sometime later this month.

The second Dreamliner test plane will be used for system tests, said Boeing.

Posted by John Gillie @ 08:52:25 am

Japan Airlines late last week dropped its orders for the shortest range Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the 787-3, in favor of the longer-range 787-8.

That move means Japan's All Nippon Airways is the sole customer for the shorter-range, higher capacity version of the high-tech Dreamliner.

ANA has 28 orders for the 787-3. It has converted two orders from the 787-3 to the 787-8.

The 787-3 is a plane that Boeing is building mostly for shorter-range routes primarily within Asia. The 787-3 won't have the raked wingtips of the 787-8 and 787-9 to allow the -3 greater access to narrow gates at some Asian airports.

The 787-3's range is between 2,875 and 3,550 statute miles. The 787-8's range will be up to 9,775 miles if Boeing is successful in reducing the overweight condition of the first airplanes.

=> Read more!

Categories: General, Aerospace, Tourism
Posted by John Gillie @ 06:41:30 am

One of the reasons the Air Force picked the Airbus A330-based aerial tanker over Boeing's modified 767 in the last round of competition was the A330's size.

The twin-engine Airbus passenger jet modified with the help of NOrthrop Grumman could carry more fuel, cargo or troops than Boeing's small 767.

Now that Boeing and Airbus get to recompete that $40 billion contract because the Air Force was caught with its thumb on the scale during the last competition, Boeing says it will counter the A330 with its 777.

"You want big? We'll give you big," said Boeing in effect to the Air Force today in Paris.

Boeing Integrated Defense Systems President Jim Albaugh told journalists that Boeing will offer both the 767 and the 777 in the aerial tanker competition beginning this summer, reported Bloomberg News.

Analysts wonder whether the 777, which is bigger than the Airbus A330, is just too much of a good thing.

Boeing argued during the last competition that the A330's size wasn't necessarily an advantage because it would require larger ground facilities and would carry more fuel than would be needed on typical refueling missions.

The A330 tanker could carry 250,000 pounds of fuel versus the 767's 202,000 pounds.

Some rumors suggest too that Boeing could offer the largest version of the 767, the 767-400, as a way of addressing the capacity gap, but there's been no confirmation from the company.

Categories: General, Aerospace, Technology
Posted by John Gillie @ 06:23:54 am

With June halfway done, Boeing's got a little more than two weeks to make good on its most recent promise to fly the 787 Dreamliner before the end of the quarter.

Based on news from the Paris Air Show, Boeing could be launching the Dreamliner at the last possible moment.

First, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Scott Carson told reporters in Paris that the Dreamliner won't be flying during the airshow. Scratch this week for the first flight.

And then rumors emerged that the first time the 787 will leave the ground has tentatively been set for June 30.

That's what blogger Jon Ostrower says he's hearing. Ostrower has pretty reliable sources inside the 787 organization.

The plane, nearly two years late already in getting off the ground, has passed the so-called "intermediate gauntlet" testing in which Boeing simulated actual flights while the plane remained on the ground.

Now it faces more tests leading up to low and high speed taxi testing before it leaves the earth from Paine Field in Everett and pulls its wheels up for a two to three-hour initial test flight around the Puget Sound area.

Posted by John Gillie @ 06:19:35 am

American Airlines has placed orders for eight more Boeing 737-800 jetliners worth some $600 million at list prices.

The order moves Boeing's order tally into positive territory for the year. The company now has seen 73 new orders for aircraft and 66 cancellations.

One unidentified buyer canceled an order for a 787 Dreamliner last week.

American is gradually replacing its fuel-guzzling mainline jet, the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 with 737-800s, the mid-sized version of its popular single-aisle twin-jet.

American expects to take delivery of 31 737s this year and 45 in 2010. It has orders for eight more 737s in 2011. The 737 is built at Boeing's Renton plant.

Categories: General, Aerospace, Tourism
Posted by John Gillie @ 05:39:35 am

Washington State will receive $2.6 million as part of a nationwide settlement with a drug manufacturer that allegedly overcharged government healthcare programs prescription medications.

Attorney General Rob McKenna said Aventis Pharmaceutical Inc. has agreed to a $95.5 million nationwide settlement for allegedly overcharging for three steroid anti-inflammatory nasal sprays.

Those drugs were Azmacort, Nasacort and Nasacort AQ.

This is how the overcharge happened, according to the attorney general's office:

"Under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Statute, Aventis was required to report the lowest or 'best' price price that it charged commercial customers and pay quarterly rebates to Medicaid based on those reported prices. Washington's settlement resolves allegations that between 1995 and 2000, Aventis and its corporate predecessors knowingly misreported the information in order to make more money on the nasal sprays."

The attorney general said that the drugmaker sold the three products to Kaiser Permanente, a large health maintenance organization (owner of Group Health). It allowed Kaiser to repackage those drugs under Kaiser's private label, thus dodging the price comparisons with what the government was paying.

Categories: General