Jan. 14, 2024 at 6:00 am Updated Jan. 14, 2024 at 6:00 am By Dominic Gates Seattle Times aerospace reporter When a door-sized section of a 737 MAX 9 fuselage exploded out into the void 16,000 feet over Portland, Boeing’s once-solid reputation, already staggered by the two MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019, took another
Is Sea-Tac Airport really the nation’s worst for international travel?
By Vonnai Phair Seattle Times staff reporter If you’ve traveled through an airport during the winter holiday season, you’ve probably experienced the habitual holiday horrors: weather delays, canceled flights, grueling lines, miserable crowds. Tack on the stresses of travelling internationally — and having to consider factors like customs and citizenship status — and holiday travel
How airline mergers hurt travelers — and how you can fight them
By Christopher Elliott Special to The Seattle Times Travel Troubleshooter If the latest wave of proposed airline mergers has left you a little worried, then you have a good memory. Historically, airline mergers are terrible for passengers. And the latest two — the proposed combination of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, and of JetBlue Airways
With some flight attendants on welfare, Alaska Airlines faces contract fight
By Dominic Gates Seattle Times aerospace reporter You wouldn’t know it to look at them. Junior Alaska Airlines flight attendants say they are barely getting by on poverty level wages, many of them building up debt and scrambling to make rent. Yes, they look sleekly professional on the job. But some with children qualify for
What tourists at a downtown Seattle hostel have to say about our city
By Erik Lacitis Pacific NW magazine writer Postscripts 2023: Catching up with some of this year’s cover story subjects. AMID OUR COMPLAINTS about this or that being wrong with Seattle, we locals can forget why this is a truly magnificent city. So thank you, tourists. In June, I wrote a story about the most-asked questions tourists have when
NASA and Boeing chase jet contrails with science of climate impact in doubt
By Dominic Gates Seattle Times aerospace reporter Scientific debate is getting heated over what to do about airplane contrails — the wispy lines of water vapor you often see trailing behind a jet. Those harmless-looking vapor trails sometimes spread out to form thin cirrus clouds. Environmental activists and nonprofits focused on climate change routinely assert
Letting people work from home is good for companies’ revenue growth
By Matthew Boyle Bloomberg Companies that allow remote work have experienced revenue growth that’s four times faster than those that are more stringent about office attendance, a new survey shows, adding fuel to the debate over productivity and performance in today’s workplaces. The analysis of 554 public companies that employ a collective 26.7 million people
WA’s largest oil refinery ramps up cleaner fuels as climate laws take hold
By Isabella Breda Seattle Times staff reporter CHERRY POINT, Whatcom County — Thick steam billowed from a series of towers and pipes, intricately woven together to form a powerhouse of the region’s energy production and Washington’s largest oil refinery. BP’s Cherry Point facility, which belched more than 2 million metric tons of climate-warming gases into
Port of Seattle Commissioner candidates on climate, fiscal discipline
By Renata Geraldo Seattle Times business reporter Voters will soon decide on a key position at the Port of Seattle Commission, which manages the Port and leads policies that shape the future of one of Puget Sound’s main economic engines. For Commissioner Position No. 5, King County voters will choose between incumbent Fred Felleman, seeking
Will high gas prices derail WA’s climate policy?
By Conrad Swanson Seattle Times climate reporter Nobody was quite sure how life would change for Washingtonians when lawmakers passed the state’s landmark climate policy in 2021. But in the nine months since the state started charging polluters, one thing has become increasingly clear: the sticker shock. A nearly $1.5 billion price tag — so