Fare Wars

SEATTLE -- Boeing Co. said yesterday that it will reduce its work force by another 5,000 people this year, 71 percent more than it had planned, as the company continues to try to make jets for less money.The additional cuts -- a combination of firings and attrition -- will leave the world's largest jet maker with 105,300 employees at the end of the year.The jet-making business is still struggling to recover from a global recession. Cash-strapped airlines, themselves hurting from fierce fare wars, haven't been ordering as many planes -- something Boeing is trying to change.

Leonardtown -- Marie Rizzio, of Traverse City, Mich., figures you can make cakes out of crab meat, so why not try making cakes out of oysters.She figured right, whipping up an oyster cake recipe that won her $1,000 and grand prize at the National Oyster Cook-Off held Saturday in southern Maryland."

NEW YORK -- Stock prices finished narrowly higher yesterday in another quiet session, with no signs of improvement in the economy to boost equities or the dollar.The Dow Jones industrial average rose 8.91 points, to 3,266.26, partly on the strength of computer-guided buy orders at the close. The Dow fell short of recouping Monday's loss of 10.26 points.Broader market averages also gained. Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.04, to 416.07, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 2.49, to 565.61.

The airline industry is in turmoil, but the path to economi security is clear -- if the industry's leaders will just see the way. Many do, but their competitive instincts impair their vision.The latest evidence is United Airlines' announcement it will cut $400 million a year by laying off 2,800 employees, cutting service and reducing its fleet. This follows similar moves by most other domestic airlines and the fervent search for infusions of capital.Stephen M. Wolf, United's chairman, urged President-elect Clinton to name a commission to study the industry's troubles.

Hoping to give a lift to what they fear will be a lackluster summer travel season, major airlines followed Northwest Airlines' lead by slashing fares up to 30 percent yesterday.The discount fares -- which follow similar cuts offered by airlines this spring -- are good news for travelers, who so far seem to be staying closer to home and spending less this summer, according to travel industry officials. The airlines hope the discount fares will encourage consumers who have postponed making summer travel plans to consider air travel.

U.S. airlines are emerging from a period of exceptional financial turbulence, only to enter one of philosophical turbulence. After three years of staggering financial losses, the major airlines are either starting to turn a profit again or at least to sharply reduce the red ink. Now comes a spate of recommendations to restore this vital industry's health and to ensure that its recent troubles don't recur.Most prominent -- but not necessarily the most far-seeing -- recommendations are in the report of a federal commission charged with strengthening U.S. airlines.

A couple miles off of Ocean City, a barge sucks sand from the coastal bottom to deposit on the beach. It's part of an Olympian tug of war: Man is trying to fortify a beachfront continually depleted by erosion and storms, and Mother Nature will return some day to claim the sand again.Not just on the beach, but also in its business environment, Ocean City is dealing with shifting sands. The state's prime resort town has experienced flat growth the past few years. Community leaders are combing for reasons -- and solutions.

PHILADELPHIA - Southwest Airlines Flight 741 took off for Chicago at 6:59 a.m. yesterday, inaugurating a critical city for Southwest, the nation's largest low-fare carrier, and setting off a flash point for the brutally competitive airline industry. While depicted as a threat to struggling US Airways, which uses Philadelphia as one of its three hubs and operates 68 percent of its flights from here, Southwest's presence has set in motion a battle for passengers between low-fare carriers and traditional airlines that epitomizes what is going on nationwide.

Firing another salvo in the continuing Baltimore air fare war, Southwest Airlines announced yesterday that it would extend for another three weeks fare cuts that offer customers $48 round-trip flights to Cleveland, and $198 trips to Las Vegas and back.The Dallas-based airline, which helped set off a price war last month by offering price cuts on flights from Baltimore Washington International Airport to 27 cities, said that it would extend the cuts through Nov. 15."Our purpose is for Southwest to establish itself as the low-fare airline.

TBS seeks to buy New Line CinemaTurner Broadcasting System, which has been eager to expand into film production, is in talks to acquire New Line Cinema, the studio confirmed yesterday. Turner is also talking to Castle Rock Entertainment, a production company.No price tag was put on New Line. The stock closed yesterday at $16.25, giving it a market capitalization of about $285 million.USAir traffic again declinesFor the second straight month, USAir Group Inc. reported a sharp decline in traffic, with July revenue passenger miles down 13.5 percent from July 1992.