IN BRIEF

WASHINGTON

More airlines arrive on time during May

U.S. airlines have cut many flights and they are getting better at staying on schedule with their remaining flights, as more trips arrived on time in May than a year earlier.

The Transportation Department also said Thursday that fewer flights were canceled and passengers reported fewer cases of mishandled baggage.

Overall, 80.5 percent of May flights arrived on time, compared with 79 percent in May 2008 and 79.1 percent in April of this year, according to the Transportation Department.

Hawaiian Airlines topped the list of 19 airlines, with 90.3 percent of its May flights arriving on time.

At the bottom of the rankings: Delta Air Lines Inc. regional subsidiary Comair, at 65.7; and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which is owned by SkyWest Inc. and provides feeder service for Delta, at 70.8 percent.

NEW YORK

Store chain petitions for lower card fees

Riding a wave of public outrage over credit card practices, 7-Eleven Inc. wants to show merchants are victims of the industry too.

The convenience store chain announced a petition this week to give small businesses more power to negotiate the fees they must pay whenever a customer uses a credit or debit card. 7-Eleven said more than 6,000 of its franchisees plan to collect 1 million signatures to deliver to Congress this fall.

George Clift, who owns a 7-Eleven in McKinney, Texas, said he's keeping the petition on his store counter and asking customers to sign whenever they pay with plastic.

Clift said he pays about $28,000 in credit card fees each year, which he notes is "a huge number for a small businessman."

Still, Visa and MasterCard warn that if such fees were lowered, banks would need to make up any lost revenue with higher credit and debit card fees.

McLEAN, Va.

Thirty-year mortgage rates slide in week

Average rates for 30-year mortgages fell for the second straight week, but still remained above record lows reached earlier this year, Freddie Mac said Thursday.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed home loan was 5.2 percent this week, down from 5.32 percent last week, Freddie Mac said. At this time last year, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage averaged 6.37 percent.

Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to a record low of 4.78 percent earlier this year, spurring refinance activity.

This week, the average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 4.69 percent, down from 4.77 percent last week, said Freddie Mac.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.

Sprint Nextel will shift network operations

Sprint Nextel Corp. on Thursday announced it will transfer operation of its wireless and wireline networks to Swedish telecommunications equipment maker LM Ericsson.

The seven-year deal, valued between $4.5 billion and $5 billion, will transfer about 6,000 Sprint employees later this year to an Ericsson-owned subsidiary, based at Sprint's Overland Park, Kan., headquarters. About 2,000 of the employees are based in the Kansas City area, with the rest spread across the country.

NEW YORK

Mays keeps pitching in new commercial

Death won't still the voice of Billy Mays or his mighty powers of persuasion. Viewers will continue to find the boisterous, bearded TV pitchman hawking household products for the indefinite future.

And at least one of his commercials is being introduced posthumously.

"Just stretch, wrap and it fuses fast," says Mays, demonstrating a product called Mighty Tape on a kitchen drain pipe in the new commercial. Moments later, he's seen, still wearing his signature sport shirt and khaki slacks but accessorized with scuba gear, as he repairs a hole in another diver's air hose underwater using Mighty Tape.

The commercial will begin airing July 20. Mays' advertising for other products in the Mighty brand line returned to the air this week. The commercials were pulled after Mays' death June 28 of an apparent heart attack.

"Our feeling is, everyone wants to have Billy go on," said Bill McAlister, president of Media Enterprises, a sales and marketing company based in Trevose, Penn. "This is what he would have wanted."

NEW YORK

Treasury prices drop as stocks rebound

Treasury prices slipped Thursday, a day after a big jump, as stock prices recovered.

The 10-year Treasury note fell 0.84 points to 97.58, pushing its yield up to 3.41 percent from 3.29 percent late Wednesday. The level of the yield Wednesday was the lowest since May 20. It reached an eight-month high of 4.01 percent on June 10.

The 30-year bond fell 1.81 points to 99.94 and its yield jumped to 4.32 percent from 4.16 percent.