Airlines

ONE likes it for the personal service, another because she can work and make phone calls and a third for the clean restrooms and comfortable chairs. And all love the peace and quiet afforded by the members-only airline clubs or VIP lounges. Airline gate areas usually are frenetic places where noisy throngs of disembarking passengers raise the decibel level and where those waiting anxiously for their flights yak on cellphones, click on laptops, rustle through newspapers and deal with fussing children.

Nearly 40 years after the last Havana-bound commercial airline departed from Los Angeles International Airport, flights between LAX and Havana will resume in April, flight organizers said Thursday, moving U.

Travelers with visions of Waikiki, sandy beaches and island cruises were stranded Thursday at Los Angeles International Airport and across the nation as low-fare carrier ATA Airlines Inc.

Looking for a good deal on an air fare? Try an air fare "factory outlet"--a discounter or consolidator. Airlines often sell large blocks of tickets at bargain prices to discounters (also called consolidators), which pass those savings on to passengers.

When the airline industry nose-dived after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, food preparer Overhill Farms Inc. was hit particularly hard. Vernon-based Overhill relied on airlines as a major buyer of its prepared meals.

Domestic travel might be in a slump, but overseas flights are surging at Los Angeles International Airport. Foreign airlines are turning to LAX again despite crowded, aging terminals -- frequent-flier surveys often rank it among the nation's worst -- that have made it the bane of airlines and passengers.