SEC looks into posting of old United story

As if United Airlines has not been having enough trouble these days it had to content last week with an internet echo of an old story.

Officials at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are wondering if there was any improper conduct behind the online release last weekend of a 6-year-old news story that lead to a 75 percent drop in the stock of United Airlines on Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

The SEC has opened a “preliminary inquiry” into the online distribution of a Chicago Tribune article from 2002 about United Airlines’ bankruptcy filing, people familiar with the matter said.

The Tribune Co. said in a statement on Wednesday that it believes a single visit to the archived story on the site of its South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper during a low-traffic time period resulted in the computer system displaying it under a tab titled “Popular Stories Business: Most Viewed.”

The article was then picked up by Google News and displayed with no indicate of the original date of publishing. It was later distributed by Bloomberg.

Google’s automated search agent “Googlebot” misclassified the article because it is unable to differentiate between breaking news and frequently viewed stories on the newspaper Web sites, the Tribune said, adding that it had asked Google to stop crawling its sites month ago, but the process had continued.

Meanwhile Continental seems to be happy about their new fees for luggage.

Continental says luggage fee to generate $100 mln

Continental Airlines on Thursday said it expects to see $100 million in revenue and cost savings related to a new $15 dollar bag-check fee.

Canada passes airline passengers’ bill of rights

(September 11, 2008) - At a press conference in Ottowa, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon announced the passage of a passenger’s bill of rights program, nicknamed “Flight Rights.” The Canadian government is the first airline in North America to execute a passengers’ bill of rights.

Under the new law, Canadian airlines will also be required to provide stranded travelers with updated flight delay and schedule change information, along with meal vouchers for delays of four hours and hotel vouchers for delays of eight hours or more.

Eurostar trains halted by fire in Channel Tunnel

Cross-Channel travellers face severe disruption today [September 12] as operators struggle to resume rail services after a fire in the Channel Tunnel yesterday.

The tunnel was closed for the rest of the day, causing disruption to more than 15,000 passengers. Seven people were treated for smoke inhalation and minor injuries.