■AVIATION
American delays new route
American Airlines said on Friday it was seeking to delay by a year its planned Chicago-Beijing service, set to begin in April next year. The largest US carrier said it had filed a request with the US Department of Transportation for a waiver to allow it to begin service between Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Beijing on April 4, 2010. The request “cited the extraordinary adverse market and operating conditions affecting the entire airline industry,” American Airlines said in a statement.
■JAPAN
Fukui to advise firm
Former Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui, who stepped down in March, is set to become a member of Matsushita Electric Industrial’s advisory panel, a newspaper reported yesterday. Matsushita, which is best known for its Panasonic brand, will ask Fukui to join its global affairs advisory panel, which will be set up next month, the Nikkei Shimbun said. Matsushita aims to tap Fukui’s knowledge on macroeconomics and global issues, it said.
■MACHINERY
Mitsubishi invests in plant
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd will boost its production of core nuclear power equipment by investing ¥15 billion (US$138 million) in its key plant, a newspaper reported yesterday. The nation’s largest heavy machinery manufacturer plans to double production capacity at its nuclear power equipment plant in Akashi, western Japan, the Nikkei Shimbun daily said. Construction would begin in January for completion in mid-2011, it added.
■AVIATION
Airbus delays deliveries
Delivery of a second Airbus A380 to Emirates, the airline of the United Arab Emirates, will suffer a further delay of two months, French daily Le Figaro reported yesterday. Emirates put its first giant A380 into service on Aug. 1 with a direct flight from Dubai to New York. The Middle East’s biggest airline hopes by next spring to take delivery of four more jumbos serving London, Sydney and Auckland as well as New York. A further 53 A380s are scheduled to be delivered by June 2013. Delivery, held up by problems laying out the cabin, would not take place before Oct. 20, nearly two months late, Le Figaro said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Tata plant remains shut
Protests against a factory being built in eastern India to make the world’s cheapest car forced a halt to work for a second day yesterday as vehicle giant Tata Motors mulled the plant’s future. “There has been no improvement in the ground situation so far, hence the conditions are still not conducive for resuming work today,” Tata Motors said. “We continue to assess the situation closely” at the plant in Singur in West Bengal state.
■BANKING
US crisis claims 10th bank
Integrity Bank of Alpharetta on Friday became the 10th US bank to fail so far this year, done in by the very business it was built on — real estate lending. Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama, is assuming all of the Alpharetta, Georgia, banks’ US$974 million in insured and uninsured deposits in 23,000 accounts, and about US$34.4 million of the bank’s US$1.1 billion in assets. The remainder of Integrity Bank’s total assets are being retained by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The FDIC said it estimated that Integrity’s failure will cost its deposit insurance fund US$250 million to US$350 million.
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