text: BUSINESS - Arizona Republic AZ Inc. Column, AMWEST Earnings Expected to Fall Due to Higher Fuel Prices and Operating Problems
  Title: The Arizona Republic AZ Inc. Column
  Summary: Apr. 6 (The Arizona Republic/KRTBN)--AMWEST EARNINGS EXPECTED TO FALL: America West Airlines expects to report a decline in earnings in the first quarter, compared with last year, because of higher fuel prices and operating problems.
  Story Filed: Thursday, April 06, 2000 3:53 PM EST
  Apr. 6 (The Arizona Republic/KRTBN)--AMWEST EARNINGS EXPECTED TO FALL: America West Airlines expects to report a decline in earnings in the first quarter, compared with last year, because of higher fuel prices and operating problems.
  The Tempe-based company announced the dip in earnings in its 10-K financial report filed last week.
  It will release first-quarter earnings on April 19.
  America West posted $26 million in profits, or 63 cents per share, in
  the first quarter of 1999.
  The company is expected to earn 31 cents per share this year, according to The Thomson/First Call consensus.
  Fuel prices nearly doubled in the first quarter over a year earlier and are expected to cut into profits at most airlines.
  America West also canceled 280 flights over two days in February because of a computer glitch and had a surge of weather-related delays and cancellations in early March.
  LEAPSOURCE HIRES CHIEF FOR OPERATIONS IN VALLEY: LeapSource has hired Mike Noble, former director of finance for $6.5 billion Alliant Foodservice Inc., to manage its operations centers in the Valley and around the United States.
  Tempe-based LeapSource, founded in October by three former partners of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm, specializes in accounting, computer services and other back-office management activities for large organizations.
  HARD DOLLAR WINS PATENTS ON PROJECT TECHNOLOGY: Hard Dollar Corp., a Tempe company that develops estimating and project management software for construction projects, has received patents on its technology.
  The patents cover the graphical navigation innovations that Hard Dollar devised for its Bid estimating and Build project management systems.
  The firm received $11 million in venture capital this year to create an online hub of business
  To see more of The Arizona Republic, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.azcentral.com
  (c) 2000, The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Ariz. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
  Copyright ) 2000, Knight Ridder Open, all rights reserved.
  I like they way "operating problems" keep coming up in these financial reports--to cover a wide range of difficulties. I've studied many quarterly financials, and hardly ever see anything more than "technical problems" that might even come close to indirectly describing y2k troubles.