The government of former Soviet republic Turkmenistan has ordered the state airline to buy three new 737-700 jetliners from Boeing.

Reuters reports the country says that it will pay $120 million for the planes.

Turkmenistan, blessed with abundant natural gas, is gradually replacing all of its former Soviet airliners with new Western models.

The 737-700 is a twin-engine jet produced at Boeing's Renton plant.

Alaska Airlines posted the best on-time record last month among traditional network airlines, new figures from Portland's flightstats.com show.

The airline, whose on-time performance has been at or near the top of the charts in recent months, was 86.44 percent on time in July.

That put Alaska fifth on the list of domestic U.S. airlines. The four airlines with better performances are either regional or commuter carriers.

Topping the list was Hawaiian Airlines with 93.45 percent of its flights arriving on time, within 15 minutes of the schedule.

Alaska's sister regional carrier, Horizon Air, was third on the list with 88.16 percent on-time arrivals.

Meanwhile, Sea-Tac Airport was ninth among the world's busiest airports in on-time arrivals in July with 82.69 percent of flights arriving on time.

Tops was Seoul, Korea with 85.39 percent of its flights arriving on schedule.

A tax on shipping containers handled at the nation's biggest port complex, Long Beach-Los Angeles, may soon be rolled back.

That tax was approved in January of last year, but never imposed it because of the economy's slowdown.

Pacific Northwest ports such as Tacoma and Seattle had hoped the Southern California tax on container imports would shift some cargo northward because the Northwest ports weren't imposing such a fee on imports.

The tax was supposed to generate $1.4 billion for infrastructure improvements at the ports.

The two ports delayed the implementation of that fee, now $6 per 20-foot container, until July 1, 2010 because they didn't want to lose business to other ports in a declining economy.

The side-by-side ports now are reported to be considering scrapping the fees entirely.

Ships that have agreed to use low-sulphur diesel fuel to power their generators and other engines while docked at the Port of Seattle have cut their emissions substantially, the port said.

Sulphur dioxide emissions from those ships is down 80 percent or more, and particulate matter emissions have been reduced 60 percent by the program.

That program, At-Berth Clean Fuels, pays shipping lines an incentive averaging about $1,500 per ship call to help defray the higher cost of low-sulphur fuel.

That subsidy payment comes from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.

So far, said the port, 37 ships from six container lines and one cruise line have agreed to participate in ABC Fuels. Those ships make about 35 percent of the ship calls art the port.

The repeal of Alaska's $50 per person tax on cruise ship passengers visiting the 49th state isn't on new Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell's to-do list, reports the Juneau Empire.

The abolition of that tax could be good news for Puget Sound if cruise lines are right in their prediction that the cost reduction would lure more passengers to their Alaska cruises.

Seattle is now the largest homeport for Alaska-bound cruises. Cruise lines have threatened to curtail their sailings to Alaska unless the state removes the tax.

Alaska voters approved the head tax in a 2006 ballot initiative.

Parnell recently replaced former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who resigned the Alaska governor's post.

SeaTac's Horizon Air is expanding wintertime service to California's Mammoth Lakes resort beginning in mid-December.

The new service, announced today, will double the number of daily flights from Los Angeles and add non-stop flights from San Jose and Reno.

The new service will also offer one-stop service from Seattle and Portland.

Horizon inaugurated service from LAX last year with one flight daily. The flight was an hour and 10 minutes compared with a car trip of five hours.

New fares start at $49 each way from Reno, $69 from San Jose and Los Angeles, $144 from Portland and $149 from Seattle.

Your Pierce County Library card now gets you access to a resume assistance service, free of charge.

The county library system announced Monday that it is offering access to software from Resume Maker, which provides guided resumes in dozens of styles. The service also includes video simulations representing top interview questions and answers, information about salary standards and salary negotiation tips.

"We're hearing more and more from folks in our libraries saying, 'I need help with this,'" said Mary Getchell, library spokeswoman.

So the library entered into a two-year contract with Resume Maker for $15,000.

Library card holders can access the service from their home computer by going to www.piercecountylibrary.org, then clicking on "Search Site" in the top right corner. In the search field, enter "resume maker" then select the appropriate item. Follow the instructions from there on logging in.

The service also will be available from the libraries' own computers. Go to www.piercecountylibrary.org/branches to find the location closest to you.