Deadly crashes in Brazil, Africa and Southeast Asia last year led to the first global uptick in serious jetliner accidents in a decade, the International Air Transport Association said Thursday. The association counted a total of 100 serious airline accidents in 2007 — ones that destroyed or severely damaged the plane — up from 77 a year earlier.
However, the overall number of deaths from flying declined, to 692 last year from 855 a year earlier, according to the group’s annual safety report. Passenger traffic was up 6 percent during the same period, the Geneva-based organization said.
Spectrum auction
Intel Corp. dove further into the cellular business on Thursday, becoming one of the winners in Sweden’s auction of licenses for nationwide wireless broadband. Intel paid $26 million for a 15-year license it intends to use for WiMax.
Intel business developer Carl-Daniel Norenberg said the company was looking for partners to build and operate the network, but planned to keep the license and rent it out rather than sell it.
In the U.S., Intel was part of Sprint Nextel’s announcement Wednesday of plans to create a nationwide WiMax network. Intel will contribute $1 billion to that $14.5 billion venture. Intel stands to gain from sales of WiMax-enabled computer chips for a wide range of consumer products.
Booze news
Diageo PLC, the world’s largest producer of alcoholic drinks, said Thursday that sales rose 7 percent in the nine months ending March 31. The maker of Guinness stout, Johnnie Walker whiskey and Smirnoff vodka said net sales growth was in line with results in the first half. It did not provide a specific sales figure in the brief trading update.
Best Buy venture
Best Buy has moved into Europe with a $2.1 billion investment in the continent’s largest cell phone retailer, Carphone Warehouse Group PLC of London, the companies announced Thursday. Best Buy’s 50 percent stake in a joint venture with Carphone will allow it to roll out its trademark big box stores in Europe.
The companies in the past two years have collaborated to develop Best Buy Mobile in the U.S., and to bring Best Buy’s Geek Squad, a 24-hour computer support task force, to Europe.
Sober rates
The European Central Bank and the Bank of England both held their official interest rates steady on Thursday as rising inflation outweighed concerns about slowing economic growth across the European Union. But the two banks are expected to take different paths next month when the European bank is likely to keep its borrowing rate at 4 percent to fight inflation, while many economists expect the British central bank to cut its rate by a quarter percentage point from the current 5 percent.
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