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The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation Thursday that would strip freight railroads of their antitrust exemptions.
The measure in the Democratic-led Senate was approved 14 to 1, but its future was uncertain in the Republican-led House of Representatives. Get the full story »
Southwest Airlines is recovering from two unrelated computer outages Tuesday that caused the carrier’s online reservations systems to crash and briefly snarled its flight operations.
The technical foul-ups were resolved overnight, said Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz, via e-mail. “We may have had some temporary periods of slowness as we are still working through all issues with the conversion, but for the most part it’s been running smoothly today,” he added.
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Travelocity said Tuesday it signed a multiyear deal with US Airways to offer the carrier’s full range of content through the Sabre Holdings global distribution system, a third party agent that owns Travelocity. Get the full story »
The head of Southwest Airlines Co. said Friday that successive fare increases brought on as the industry battles with soaring jet-fuel costs isn’t cutting into demand.
Gary Kelly, chairman and chief executive of Dallas-based Southwest, said he didn’t see signs of “demand destruction” and has no plans to cut capacity at this point. Get the full story »
Triton Container International Ltd., which is owned by the wealthy Pritzker family, is expected to disclose as early as Thursday its sale to private-equity firms Warburg Pincus LLC and Vestar Capital Partners for about $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
Talks are ongoing and details are still being finalized, these people added. Including debt and cash, a sale would value Triton at about $3.5 billion, people familiar with the matter said. Get the full story »
Standing in front of a fast-charging station at the Chicago Auto Show, Gov. Pat Quinn called on automakers to bring electric vehicles to the state in light of charging infrastructure planned for the Chicago area.
“We’re going to have electric vehicles galore in the state of Illinois,” he said. “We want to be the nation’s capital for electric vehicles.”
In announcing that Chicago has signed a contract to have 280 charging stations installed in the area, Quinn said the infrastructure will go a long way toward making the state’s environmental goals a reality. Get the full story »
United Airlines operations are returning to normal after the carrier voluntarily grounded its fleet of 96 Boeing 757s Tuesday to ensure the planes’ air-data computer software complied with a Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive.
The Chicago-based carrier was able to quickly carry out the software checks needed to meet federal guidelines, and most of the aircraft were back in service by mid-day Wednesday. Get the full story »
Online travel agencies remain a big hit with shoppers, new survey data show, but the sites’ popularity could fade if contract battles with airlines leave them with fewer airfares to lure bargain-chasing consumers, researchers warned.
With airfares soaring and the economy stuck in the doldrums, consumers continue to flock to travel sites to plot dream vacations and research deals and steals, a market that’s expected to total $104.6 billion in 2011, according to market research firm PhoCusWright Inc. Get the full story »
The U.S. Postal Service warned Wednesday that it may default on some of its financial obligations later this year after reporting yet another quarterly loss.
The USPS, a self-supporting government agency that receives no tax dollars, said it suffered a loss of $329 million in the first quarter of the federal fiscal year 2011. That compares with a loss of $297 million a year ago. Get the full story »
Residents of the United Arab Emirates can now access traffic information from their GPS device or phone using Chicago-based NAVTEQ’s Traffic program. Get the full story »
Winter storms forced airlines to ground nearly 20,000 flights this week and chilled industry earnings, resulting in an estimated net loss of $121 million to $150 million, according to AirlineForecasts LLC on Friday.
American Airlines, the country’s third-largest carrier, took the biggest hit after high winds and ice closed its Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport hub Tuesday. Get the full story »
Shares of Navistar International Corp. rose in early trading Tuesday, after the truck and bus manufacturer said it sees a stronger economy ahead and raised its fiscal 2011 earnings guidance. Get the full story »
Amazon.com Inc. may be expanding a free home-delivery program, a move that analysts say would encourage consumers to do more of their shopping for groceries and other goods with the online retailer.
The service, AmazonTote, is currently available only around Seattle, where the company is based. The program offers customers a free weekly delivery on a specified day and doesn’t require a minimum-order size. Get the full story »
With red ink showing no sign of stopping, the U.S. Postal Service is hoping to ramp up a cost-cutting program that is already eliciting yelps of pain around the country. Beginning in March, the agency will start the process of closing as many as 2,000 post offices, on top of the 491 it said it would close starting at the end of last year.
In addition, it is reviewing another 16,000 — half of the nation’s existing post offices — that are operating at a deficit, and lobbying Congress to allow it to change the law so it can close the most unprofitable among them. The law currently allows the postal service to close post offices only for maintenance problems, lease expirations or other reasons that don’t include profitability. Get the full story »
One of a dozen Yellow Cabs in Chicago that will run on compressed natural gas. (Yellow Cab)
Starting in March, if you stick out your hand to hail a cab in Chicago, the taxi you get might not run on gasoline.
That’s because Taxi Medallion Management, which operates Yellow Cabs in Chicago, is introducing 12 Ford Transit Connect taxi cabs into its fleet that run on compressed natural gas -– a fuel that emits 30 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions that traditional gasoline but requires special pumping stations. Get the full story »
