Business Notes Airlines

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines has long dodged the merger dogfights that have broken out all over the skies. Rather than pursue competitors, prosperous Delta (fiscal 1986 profits: $47.3 million) has grown by adding hubs in Dallas and Cincinnati. Last week Delta tacitly admitted that such a strategy might be a bit timid for these turbulent times. Seeking to become a force in the West, the carrier announced that it was buying Los Angeles-based Western Air Lines for $860 million. If approved by the Department of Transportation, the deal would give Delta two new hubs, in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. The combined carrier would haul some 50 million passengers annually, making it the nation's third largest airline after United and American.

In the heavily regulated thrift industry, it helps for executives to know their way around Washington. On that score, Honolulu Federal Savings & Loan should be a winner. Its new owner is H.F. Holdings, an investment firm founded by William Simon, 58, who was Treasury Secretary under Presidents Nixon and Ford. Simon has named another old Washington hand, Preston Martin, as chairman of H.F. Holdings. Martin, 62, served as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from March 1982 until March of this year.

For Simon, Honolulu Federal is the first thrift institution on a lengthy shopping list. He plans to acquire several West Coast S and Ls and put together a financial chain that will "span the Pacific." Martin will scout out potential acquisitions and negotiate the buyouts. He will probably be busy. H.F. Holdings already has bids pending on two ailing California thrifts: Bell Savings & Loan of San Mateo and Southern California Savings & Loan of Beverly Hills.

BUSINESS NOTES

JUSTICE

Gucci Packs

His Bags

For a man whose name has been synonymous with status and high fashion, it was a humiliating and humbling moment. Aldo Gucci, 81, former head of the Italian clothing and leather-goods company that bears his name, had pleaded guilty in January to evading $7.4 million in U.S. taxes, and last week he stood in a Manhattan federal court awaiting his sentence. "I feel very sorry, deeply sorry for what happened," said Gucci, in a halting, emotional voice.

Judge Vincent Broderick said he would be lenient because of Gucci's age and the painful publicity the defendant had already suffered. The sentence: a year in prison, $30,000 in fines and five years' probation. Gucci will begin serving his term in October at a still undisclosed prison and will be eligible for parole after four months.

BUSINESS NOTES

UTILITIES

Cold Cash on

A Hot Tub

The people of northern Idaho and eastern Washington are typically rugged farmers, loggers and miners who work hard for a living. But if Washington Water Power, the region's main utility, has its way, some of them may be turning into laid-back sybarites, luxuriating their leisure hours away in hot tubs. The area's sluggish economy has led to a slump in electricity usage, so W.W.P. is trying to boost energy consumption by offering customers $250 in cash toward the purchase of a new hot tub. Utility officials say that each tub uses about 5,200 kW-h per year, roughly equivalent to the amount of energy consumed by 2 1/2 large refrigerators.

Idaho Fair Share, a local consumer-advocacy group, attacked W.W.P.'s novel plan as a "welfare program for the rich." Company officials, however, respond that hot tubs, which currently cost about $2,000 apiece, are affordable items for most middle-class families. Moreover, W.W.P. maintains, by increasing energy usage the company can hold down rates for all customers. So far, though, most of the utility's frugal customers seem to look upon hot tubs, affordable or not, as frivolous purchases. Only about 30 have bought tubs during the first seven weeks of the program, well short of W.W.P.'s ultimate goal of 500.

Off the coast of Southern California, a small boat tows a 760-ft.-long tower of steel known as Platform Gail in an endless circle. In August, Chevron had the $25 million, Japanese-built drilling rig pulled across the Pacific, intending to set it up near the Channel Islands National Park. But last week the California coastal commission refused for a second time to give Chevron the go-ahead, partly because of fears that a spill could threaten the park's brown pelicans. Chevron is appealing the decision to Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldrige. Meanwhile, the company is racking up $200,000 a day in towing charges.

BUSINESS NOTES

ENERGY

Circling Slowly

In the Wind