Two airlines want relief from JFK tarmac rules

JetBlue and Delta want temporary exemptions from a new government rule that will limit the time passengers can be held on the tarmac. They say delays caused by the closing of the main runway at New York's JFK airport could cost them millions in fines. The Department of Transportation's new rule, which goes into effect April 29, orders airlines to let passengers off planes delayed for three hours or face hefty fines.

Complaints to the Better Business Bureau were up nearly 10 percent last year, with the banking industry seeing the biggest jump in unhappy customers. Complaints about banks spiked 42 percent to 29,920 in 2009, according to the annual report released by the BBB. That made banks the third-most-complained-about industry, after cell phones and cable and satellite TV providers. It was the second year in a row that the banking industry saw a big jump in complaints.

It took more than two years, nearly $12 million in fees to lawyers and others and a billionaire's bargain-basement bid, but the Tropicana Casino and Resort has been salvaged by its sale to Carl Icahn. The $200 million deal completed Monday marks the activist investor's return to Atlantic City, the nation's second-largest gambling market, and ends one of the most tortured casino sales in U.S. history.

The Federal Reserve is making more financial institutions eligible for a program to drain some of the unprecedented liquidity it added to markets during the credit crisis. The move is intended to make the program, under which the Federal Reserve Bank of New York temporarily sells some of its securities, more effective. The New York Fed said Monday that domestic money market mutual funds with net assets of $20 billion are eligible for the transactions.

Northrop Grumman Corp. said it won't compete against Boeing Co. for a $35 billion contract to build refueling tankers for the Air Force because Northrop doesn't think it can win. The decision puts the Pentagon on a path to doing something President Obama said shouldn't happen anymore: paying large amounts of money to a major defense contractor without undergoing any competition.

Strong overseas growth for McDonald's Corp. in February outweighed U.S. sales that barely nudged upward as the world's largest fast-food chain posted a 4.8 percent increase in sales at restaurants open at least a year. The results come on the heels of January's 2.6 percent rise and were a welcome return to steady growth after back-to-back months of declines in the key sales figure late last year.

United Airlines says last month's back-to-back winter storms along the East Coast cost it $40 million in revenue, trumping smaller weather-related revenue losses reported by other U.S. carriers. United's disclosure Monday came after US Airways reported losing $30 million, Continental $25 million and Southwest $15 million.

FROM NEWS SERVICES