AIRLINES

JETBLUE TO BEGIN NEW YORK-BOSTON FLIGHTS

JetBlue Airways officials announced yesterday the airline is adding service between New York and Boston, Austin, Texas, and Richmond, Va., as well as increasing the number of daily flights between New York and Buffalo and Burlington, Vt.

For the flights between New York and Boston, which begin November 9, JetBlue will offer introductory fares of $25 each way, Reuters reported. The one-way fare is expected to eventually settle between $40 and $120.

The airline is introducing new Embraer 190 aircraft, which will also feature 100 channels of XM satellite radio. The airline already features 36 channels of satellite television service. The airline also announced new daily service from Boston to Austin, Richmond, the Bahamas, and West Palm Beach, Fla. Austin-New York flights begin January 19.The New York-Richmond service is slated to start March 31, 2006. Beginning December 6, JetBlue will add a fourth daily flight between New York and Burlington, Vt., and on December 20, the carrier will add its eighth daily flight between New York and Buffalo. The airline also said it will triple the number of destinations out of Boston by April 2006.

– Associated Press

TECHNOLOGY

MICROSOFT SETTLES ANTITRUST CASE WITH REALNETWORKS

SEATTLE – A broad settlement between digital media pioneer RealNetworks and its longtime foe Microsoft goes a lot further than simply ending the last major American antitrust case against the tech heavyweight. The deal also aims to help the two companies better compete against Apple Computer in the increasingly important business of online audio and video. The settlement starts with a $460 million cash payment that settles all antitrust disputes worldwide that RealNetworks had against Microsoft. RealNetworks also gets $301 million in cash and services – including promotion on Microsoft Web sites and the software giant’s instant-messaging service – that are designed to help its products reach a wider audience.

– Associated Press

APPLE NET INCOME SURGES MORE THAN 300%

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Fueled by record sales of its iPod players and strong back-to-school computer sales, Apple Computer said yesterday its fourth-quarter net income surged more than 300%. The results beat analysts’ earnings forecasts but fell short of revenue expectations. Apple shares plunged more than 10% in late trading.

For the quarter ended September 24, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company earned $430 million, or 50 cents a share, up from the previous year’s fourth-quarter earnings of $106 million, or 13 cents a share. Excluding a special 12-cents-ashare tax benefit, Apple said it would have earned 38 cents a share. On that basis, the results exceeded the per-share estimate among Wall Street analysts by a penny, according to research firm Thomson Financial. Apple shares fell $5.41, or 10.5%, to $46.18 after closing at $51.59 yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

– Associated Press

CONSUMER CREDIT

PROGRAMS AIM TO BOOST SAVINGS RATE

Two major financial institutions have introduced new promotional programs as efforts to increase the American savings rate, but if the programs are successful, they will also boost the companies’ bottom lines. Bank of America announced last Wednesday the Keep the Change program, in which debit card purchases are rounded up to the nearest dollar, with the balance deposited in the customer’s savings account. American Express released its new ONE card the next day. The company will deposit 1% of every purchase made with the card into a high-yield savings account managed by American Express. In focus groups, American Express found that customers were looking for an alternative to sky miles and other perks, the vice president of American Express ONE Card, Simran Kalra, said.

In the first quarter of this year, the personal savings rate in America was 0.5%, and it dropped to 0.3% in the second quarter, according to the Commerce Department.

The promotions also offer banks an alternative to cash-back programs, an analyst at Fox Pitt Kelton, Ed Groshans, said. “This allows them to keep the funds in their corporations as opposed to cutting a check and allowing consumers to decide what to do with it,” he said. It reduces the cost of raising money, he said, because “the funds in savings accounts are used in their operations.”

Mr. Groshans was skeptical about whether the programs would also increase savings.

– Special to the Sun