Business news digest: Chrysler extends offer to help pay for gasoline

NATION

Chrysler extends offer to help pay for gasoline

DETROIT — Chrysler is extending for another month its offer to subsidize customers’ gasoline prices for three years. The deal caps gas at $2.99 per gallon with Chrysler paying the rest. It was to expire June 2, but now will go through July 7.

Chrysler said Monday the deal has resonated with consumers and raised traffic on the Chrysler Web site by 25 percent since it began May 7.

“Boy, have we gotten a great response,” Vice Chairman and President Jim Press said on a conference call with reporters. “This has really resonated with the needs and the worries and concerns that customers have.”

Airline passenger satisfaction drops

CHICAGO — Passengers are more dissatisfied with airlines’ customer service than they have been in years at a time when carriers are charging more and more for tickets and services.

An annual survey being released today by the University of Michigan found customers giving airlines the worst grades since 2001.

United Airlines and US Airways Group Inc., which are in talks to potentially combine into a single carrier, finished next-to-last and last, respectively. Continental Airlines Inc. and US Airways Group Inc. registered the biggest declines from 2007, both experiencing double-digit percentage drops.

A familiar bright spot in the results was Southwest Airlines Co., which led the industry in passenger satisfaction for the 15th consecutive year.

Associated Press