Intense competition among airlines flying to Hawaii from the mainland and within the Hawaiian islands means low yields for the airlines, but low fares for travelers.

According the Farecast.com on Expedia.com, fares to Honolulu during the fall are as low as $298 roundtrip. That’s $159 less than the average low for this time of year.

Admittedly those sub-$300 fares are available on only a few days, but other days are just a few dollars more.

That’s a big break for those accustomed to paying in excess of $400 for a roundtrip seat to the islands.

And

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Tacoma Goodwill Industries will hold a job fair Aug. 14 featuring some two dozen employers including The Boeing Co.

The fair is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon at Goodwill’s Workforce Development Office, 714 S. 27th St. in Tacoma.

In anticipation of the fair, Goodwill will be holding four job fair preparation workshops for job applicants.

The job preparation workshops will be held from 10 a.m. to noon and from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. this Thursday and from 9:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 7.

The

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Wal-Mart is abandoning plans to build a new store at the corner of Mildred and Regents Boulevard, the company announced this morning.

The retail giant said two years ago that it would open a store in Fircrest. The plan drew criticism from citizen groups who didn’t want the big box store in their neighborhood.

The project faced construction challenges from the beginning. The site is less than half the size of most Wal-Mart plots. And most of the store’s parking would be underground, allowing for about the same retail space as larger sites.

Here’s what the company

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Coming Wednesday in The News Tribune, read my review of Tight Cuts, the new place for men who want a little extra with their haircut.

Open just 10 days at the corner of Pearl Street and Sixth Avenue, the Tacoma outlet owned by franchisees Don Squire and Patricia Larson, husband and wife, took at crack at my head. They didn’t have much with which to work.

But here’s a preview of what stylist Marian Jones (Yes, she wore the tight white cotton shirt and black leather skirt) accomplished.

That’s

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Boeing is talking with suppliers about raising its 787 Dreamliner production rates to 16 a month, a British electronics company executive said today.

Ultra Electronics CEO Douglas Caster told Reuters that Boeing is approaching its suppliers about their capabilities to support such a production rate.

Boeing’s 787 production lines are already booked solid for five years at present rates, and the company is looking at how it can satisfy airline demand for the ultra-efficient twin jet.

The company is being cautious about moving too quickly to raise projection rates because of bad experiences. In the late ’90s,

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After canceling some 16 percent of its flights on Sunday, Northwest Airlines canceled less than seven percent of its Monday flights.

That number was still several times the normal rate of cancellations for Northwest and its competitors. Most airlines typically cancel less than one percent of daily flights.

By early afternoon today, Northwest had canceled none of its Sea-Tac departures. Sunday, the Minnesota-based airline cancelled three of its nine daily departures from its Sea-Tac to its Minneapolis hub.

Those Sunday cancellations were Flight 166 due to leave Seattle at 12:55 a.m.; Flight 160 due to leave

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Heading home from work on the Tideflats? Get ready for some road construction.

This week, the Washington Department of Transportation will begin widening the southbound I-5 ramp at the Port of Tacoma Road interchange.

During the two-month project, drivers should be prepared for disruptions including narrowed, shifted lanes on the on-ramp and four on-ramp closures.

Most of the work is scheduled at night.

The first on-ramp closure is Wednesday at 10 p.m. The ramp will reopen to traffic at 5:30 a.m. Thursday.



This $1.5 million widening project is the result of

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I interviewed Port of Tacoma Executive Director Tim Farrell Wednesday night about the port’s new lease with NYK Line, a shipping company that currently uses the Port of Seattle.

I asked him then if the Port of Seattle knew that NYK Line would be moving to Tacoma.

“I think they know,” he said.

Maybe. Regardless they are not pleased with the announcement, according to the story in today’s Seattle PI.

Seattle port officials called the deal “a very serious blow to the relationship between Seattle and Tacoma” and termed it “another case of Tacoma expanding at Seattle’s expense.”

Port Executive Director Tay Yoshitani gave a speech to the Seattle Rotary at 1 p.m. Wednesday – the day before the port officially announced the deal.

He had few nice things to say about Tacoma:

“While we cooperate with the Port of Tacoma on things like security, environmental programs and some infrastructure issues, they are extremely aggressive in soliciting business away from us,” he said.

“I have no reservation in reporting to you that Tacoma currently is attempting to negotiate away a couple of our key customers. I strongly believe they ought to be looking at taking cargo away from California, rather than from us. This kind of competition makes no sense from a regional or state-wide perspective, but they don’t seem to see things that way.”

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