Discount airline struggles to fly

Discount airline struggles to fly

KINGSTON, Jamaica

The Caribbean’s first discount airline is having a rough time getting off the ground, and the company’s Irish chief executive blames political fear of competition for the region’s government-affiliated carriers.

Ian Burns dreams of creating a Caribbean version of Europe’s cut-rate Ryanair, advertising flights for as little as $10 that would make it dramatically easier for people across the islands to fly and do business, boosting the region’s economy. People in the Caribbean long have complained that costly, inefficient air service has choked back investment and jobs.

But regulators in two key countries have not yet given Burns’ REDjet permission to operate. And so far, he’s unable to offer any flights to the United States, the most important source of travelers and trade for the Caribbean.

Probe: No proof of blizzard shutdown

NEW YORK

In the days after a December blizzard paralyzed New York City, residents upset with the slow pace of the cleanup were further enraged by reports that the snow removal effort had been sabotaged on the night of the storm by disgruntled city sanitation workers.

But in a report released Friday, the city’s anticorruption agency said that although its five-month probe of those allegations had uncovered some instances of wrongdoing — including a trip by one group of plow drivers to buy beer — it found no evidence that an organized work slowdown had taken place.

The city’s Department of Investigation said it interviewed some 150 witnesses and reviewed 24 hours of video footage from surveillance cameras around the city, as well as GPS records and pictures and video submitted by residents, and found only a handful of instances where plows were either sitting still or traveling with their plows up for unexplained reasons.

The video appeared to show that the overwhelming bulk of the city’s plowing fleet was in action and that trucks seen sitting idle were actually stuck in the snow, the report said.

US agency blocks restart of oil pipeline

WASHINGTON

The U.S. pipeline-safety agency Friday blocked a Canadian company from restarting its Keystone oil pipeline until U.S. officials are satisfied the company has made required repairs and completed safety tests.

The order by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration cites two leaks last month on the 1,300-mile pipeline, which carries oil from Canada through North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. One arm then travels through Missouri to Illinois, while another goes through Kansas to Oklahoma.

A spokeswoman for the pipeline agency said Friday that federal inspectors will closely review repair work done by the pipeline’s owner, Calgary-based TransCanada. The company reported a May 7 leak of about 400 barrels in North Dakota, and a leak of about 10 barrels last Sunday in Kansas.

Associated Press