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The Boeing Co. (BA) 787 Dreamliner is likely to make an appearance next month at the Farnborough International Airshow, a biennial trade fair for some of the industry’s biggest suppliers and customers.
Though the Chicago company hasn’t made an announcement, industry insiders say they know of plans to fly the next-generation wide-body aircraft to Britain for the week-long event starting July 19. Get the full story »
From Crain’s Chicago Business | Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. is considering McCook as a location for a new locomotive plant, sources told Crain’s.
Associated Press | The state of Illinois has applied for $8 million in federal funds to help pay for planning regional high speed rail service. The Illinois Department of Transportation applied for the grant money.
The money would be used to begin designs for a 220-mph bullet train
between Chicago and St. Louis.
Associated Press | Former Boeing Co. director Edward Liddy has
rejoined the aerospace company’s board after serving as interim chairman
and chief executive of troubled insurance giant American International
Group Inc. at the request of the U.S. government.
Chicago-based Boeing announced Liddy’s return to the board Thursday.
Dow Jones Newswires | Boeing Co. (BA) said Thursday that its
subcontracting team won a U.S. research and development support contract
valued at up to $1.7 billion for upgrading the nation’s air traffic
management system.
Altogether the Federal Aviation Administration has handed out about $4.4
billion in contracts to install a satellite-based traffic management
system in the next decade. Two more contracts are expected to be awarded
under the Next Generation Air Transportation System program, or
NextGen, which has a $7 billion ceiling, making it the largest set of
awards in FAA history.
Reuters | Caterpillar Inc. agreed to buy a U.S. maker of railroad locomotives
Tuesday for $820 million in cash, expanding its rail business from
service into engine manufacturing.
The world’s largest maker of heavy equipment said it was buying
LaGrange-based Electro-Motive Diesel, which last year generated $1.8
billion in revenue, from private equity firms Berkshire Partners LLC
and Greenbriar Equity Group LLC.
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
| With a landing rights dispute settled, American Airlines launched
service between Chicago and Beijing Tuesday, as part of a schedule that
will offer a daily flight four times a week.
The Texas-based carrier had planned to initiate the service almost a
month ago, but the first flight was canceled only hours before departure
because of a dispute with the Chinese government over landing rights.
More Americans will hit the highways and airports over the 2010 Memorial Day holiday weekend, but they’ll probably spend much less than last year, according to a study released Thursday by AAA. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)
Associated Press | More Americans will hit the highways and airports over the Memorial Day
holiday weekend, but they’ll probably spend much less than last year,
according to a study released Thursday by AAA.
The travel group said about 32.1 million people are expected to take
trips during the final weekend in May. About 30.5 million Americans
traveled during the same weekend last year.
Glen MacDonell, AAA’s travel services director, said the improving
economy will convince more people to get out of the house this year.
“AAA travel agents are reporting double-digit increases in the
percentage of travelers making advanced bookings for tours and cruises,
hotel bookings,” MacDonell said.
Dow Jones Newswires | Navistar International Corp. said Tuesday it received an order from
trucking company J.B. Hunt Transportation Services Inc. to supply more
than 5,000 heavy-duty commercial trucks through 2014.
The contract is the first time the Arkansas-based trucking company has
bought International brand trucks since 1997. Most of the trucks also
will be powered with Navistar’s new 13-liter engines, which the company
has been promoting as an alternative to the 15-liter engines from
Cummins Inc. Navistar’s MaxxForce engines for J.B. Hunt also will
feature the company’s controversial pollution-reduction system that has
been widely panned by Navistar competitors.
Associated Press | The U.S. Transportation Department said Tuesday that airlines averaged an 80 percent on-time arrival rate in March, better than February and better than March 2009. Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Pinnacle Airlines had the best on-time ratings. JetBlue, ExpressJet and American Airlines had the worst. Chicago-based United Airlines ranked fourth.
Get the full story: Airlines improved on-time performance in March.
Dow Jones Newswires | U.S. airlines’ average fuel cost per gallon for scheduled flights jumped 34 percent in March from last year’s low levels, and increased 1.9 percent from February, according to the Department of Transportation.
The DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said airlines spent an average $2.19 a gallon on fuel in March, up from $1.64 a year earlier and $2.15 in February. Fuel costs for international flights rose one percent on the month and climbed 1.9 percent for domestic flights.
By Julie Wernau | If that bicycle is still in winter storage, The Active Transportation
Alliance wants you to take it out and bike to work.
Registration is open for the Alliance’s annual Bike to Work Week, June
12-18, and about 250 Chicagoland companies — including Bank of America,
Google and United Airlines — have registered to forgo motor vehicles
and public transit in favor of bicycles.
Associated Press | After a break, gasoline prices are ready to
climb again.
Surging wholesale gasoline prices should push pump prices to an 18-month
high and put drivers in many parts of the country on the cusp of having
to pay $3 per gallon for gasoline. Wholesale prices jumped 5 cents
Friday and that should mean retail prices of at least $2.87 per gallon
in the next couple of days, the highest level since October 2008, said
Tom Kloza of Oil Price Information Service.
Dow Jones Newswires | Ford Motor Co. is recalling 33,256 vehicles
to fix a problem with front seat recliners in some of its 2010 models
of Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans as well as several Explorer, Explorer
Sport Trac and Mercury Mountaineer SUVs, the automaker said Friday.
Some of the vehicles failed to meet the requirements of the federal
motor-vehicle safety standard. “In the event of a crash, the seatback
and head restraint may move rearward, increasing the risk of injury,”
according to the recall notice posted by the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration.
