Business notebook

Steve Townes, founder of Ranger Aerospace in Greenville, has been named chairman of SCAerospace, a new private-sector leadership group organized by the S.C. Council on Competitiveness and the S.C. Department of Commerce.

An engineering graduate of West Point, Townes remains Ranger’s chief executive.

“Steve Townes is a respected, dynamic leader in the aerospace world and is the perfect fit to be founding chairman of SCAerospace,” S.C. Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt said. “This industry-led group will build on the strategic plan developed ... in 2013 and help position our state as a solutions-oriented competitor on the global stage.”

SCAerospace will hold its first meeting this summer.

The Council on Competitiveness and the Commerce Department said they held aerospace networking events and are working to develop an interactive map on the industry in South Carolina.

The current wave of corporate takeovers and mergers is set to grow, with the appetite for deals among executives hitting a five-year high thanks to a strong dollar and low oil prices, a global survey found Monday.

A striking 56 percent of companies assessed say they intend to make acquisitions in the coming year, up from 40 percent in October, consulting firm EY said in its half-yearly report on corporate deal-making. That’s the first time since 2010 that more than half of executives say they plan to make an acquisition in the next 12 months.

And the number of deals in the pipeline, EY noted, is up 19 percent from a year ago.

IN BRIEF

Orders for the Apple Watch quickly soared to nearly 1 million in the U.S. on Friday, according to one research firm’s estimate.

Apple’s newest gadget went on sale online at 12:01 a.m. Friday and was quickly showing four-to-six-week delays for shipping. Customers who got in early could receive their watch as early as April 24.

Sprint to hand-deliver phones

Sprint Corp. is launching a nationwide service to hand-deliver new phones to customers in their homes.

The Direct 2 You service, which first rolled out in a Kansas City pilot, will lead to the hiring of about 5,000 mostly full-time employees as it spreads nationwide.

They will deliver, set up and demonstrate the customer’s new phone as well as transfer contacts, photos, apps and other data from the customer’s previous phone.

Study: Flying is getting worse

Think flying is getting worse? A pair of university researchers who track the airline business say it’s a fact.

More flights are late, more bags are getting lost, and customers are lodging more complaints about U.S. airlines, government data shows. Dean Headley, a marketing professor at Wichita State and one of the co-authors of the annual report being released Monday, said passengers already know that air travel is getting worse.

On-time performance fell and complaint rates rose at American, United, Delta and Southwest. The researchers blamed consolidation through mergers, which has reduced competition.

The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Kansas City Star contributed

This story was originally published April 13, 2015 at 10:18 PM with the headline "Business notebook."