United Airlines cuts fares to lure business travelers
CHICAGO -- Hoping to draw more business travelers, bankrupt United Airlines cut fares sharply Jan.6 for flights involving its two biggest hubs.
American Airlines and Continental Airlines largely matched the lower business fares. Delta Air Lines also has been revising its business travel prices recently.
United said coach fares with no advance purchase for direct flights to and from Chicago and Denver, as well as markets reached through connecting service in those cities, were cut by as much as 40 percent.
The fares on tickets purchased seven days in advance for the same flights are being cut as much as 70 percent, according to United spokesman Joe Hopkins.
Hopkins said the airline hopes the reduced fares on flights that do not require a Saturday night stay will attract business travelers.
"The key message for us is this is something we feel business travelers have been asking for," he said.
United filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Dec. 9, saying it was the only way to keep the world's No. 2 airline flying after two years of heavy losses.
Military satellite launched into orbit from Vandenberg
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The military launched a satellite Jan.6 to keep tabs on the weather in space and over the world's oceans and to help improve cell phone communications.
The Coriolis satellite lifted off at 6:19 a.m. aboard a Titan II rocket, officials said. Nearly an hour later, the satellite successfully separated from the booster and was communicating with ground stations on Earth.
The $223.5 million Coriolis mission placed two instruments in orbit, one to watch the winds that buffet Pentagon ships at sea and another to monitor the solar storms that can affect its satellites in space.
The Navy's Windsat radiometer is designed to detect wind speed and direction over the world's oceans.
"We're hoping this technology will allow us to accurately observe wind speed and direction in hurricanes, typhoons and tropical cyclones,'' said Richard Williamson, spokesman for the Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.
The Air Force's Solar Mass Ejection Imager will provide early warnings of massive storms on the sun that can knock out satellites in orbit, as well as communications and power distribution systems on Earth.
States settle with Pfizer over antibiotic advertisements
ALBANY, N.Y. -- Pfizer Inc. reached a $6 million settlement Jan. 6 with 19 states that requires the drug maker to change how it promotes its best-selling antibiotic Zithromax.
The states had accused Pfizer of misrepresenting the performance of the drug, which is used primarily to treat ear infections in children and respiratory ailments in adults.
Zithromax works with fewer doses and fewer days, but that doesn't make it superior to other antibiotics, said Christine Pritchard, spokeswoman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. She said Pfizer failed to disclose that physicians weigh other factors when prescribing treatment for ear infections.
Pfizer admitted no guilt in the settlement.
"Pfizer maintains that all of the advertising and promotional materials for Zithromax have been consistent with the medicine's labeling, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,'' Pfizer spokeswoman Mariann Caprino said.
Pfizer will pay $2 million toward public service announcements through March 2005 and promised to inform customers about factors physicians consider when prescribing antibiotics. It will also provide $4 million to cover the cost of the states' investigations.
Besides New York, states pursuing the settlement were Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin.
