BRIDGESTONE WILL FLY TIRES TO U.S.

BRIDGESTONE WILL FLY TIRES TO U.S.    Bridgestone Corp., the parent company of tire maker Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., has hired Thai Airways International to airlift hundreds of tires to the United States in an effort to ease a massive recall announced by Firestone and Ford Motor Co. this month.
   U.S. tire stocks are running low as consumers have ordered replacements for some 6.5 million Firestone ATX model tires that have been linked to dozens of fatal accidents, mostly involving Ford Explorer sports utility vehicles.
   Thai Airways carried its first load of 120 tires, weighing 1,700 kilograms, Wednesday from Tokyo to Los Angeles aboard a B747-400 passenger plane. Thai expects to move 10 more loads of varying sizes for Bridgestone over the next two weeks, a spokeswoman said. The carrier has daily B747-400 flights out of Narita. B747-400s offer considerable belly cargo capacity.
   Bridgestone is using Thai’s TG Force service, which guarantees airport-to-airport delivery of shipments with 90-minute recovery after landing. The company will pay large fees to ship the bulky tires by plane.