AirTran to offer flight from Logan to West Palm Beach

Anderson

AirTran Airways will compete with Delta Air Lines Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. by offering a daily seasonal nonstop flight from Logan International Airport to West Palm Beach, Fla., starting Nov. 15. AirTran fares will be as low as $198 for a round trip, but typically $328 for a round trip during the Christmas travel week, according to its website. Delta carries 59 percent of Boston-West Palm Beach passengers and JetBlue 33 percent, according to FareReport.com, a website that analyzes US Transportation Department data. AirTran's flights, on 137-seat Boeing 737-700 jets, will leave Boston at 12:23 p.m. and return from Palm Beach International Airport at 4:13 p.m. (Peter J. Howe)

Biopharmaceutical company Critical Therapeutics Inc. said it named Tucker Kelly chief financial officer, effective immediately. Kelly, 36, worked as a life sciences investment banker since 1998, most recently as a principal with Canaccord Adams and previously as a vice president with Robertson Stephens. Lexington-based Critical Therapeutics develops products for respiratory, inflammatory, and critical care diseases. (AP)

Continental Airlines Inc. has decided to opt out of a deal for its name to appear on the home of the NBA's New Jersey Nets and the NHL's New Jersey Devils, the arena owner said. The Meadowlands building has been called Continental Airlines Arena for 12 years, but the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority said it is seeking a new company to put its name on the arena. A spokesman for Houston-based Continental, which has a major presence at Newark Airport, said an option in its contract allows it to opt out following a major change. The Devils are leaving this fall for Newark. (AP)

Federal regulators plan to study whether relaxing, upbeat images featured in TV drug ads distract consumers from warnings about the drugs' risks. The study, made public on the Food and Drug Administration's website, comes a week after a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested the agency's drug-ad enforcement has steadily declined. The FDA says it plans to study how 2,000 people react to TV drug ads to determine whether they have an overwhelmingly positive impression of products despite audio warnings about potential side effects. (AP)

Delta Air Lines Inc. named former Northwest Airlines Corp. chief executive Richard Anderson its leader, a move that could revive speculation about a possible merger between the carriers. Anderson, currently a board member at Delta and an executive at UnitedHealth Group Inc., will replace Gerald Grinstein as chief executive. Grinstein has said previously he would step down once his successor was named. Anderson will become CEO effective Sept. 1, and Grinstein will retire from Delta and its board. (AP)

Dow Jones & Co. vice president Paul Ingrassia said he may leave the company early in 2008. "I likely will leave after year's end if there isn't a place for me, which appears doubtful," Ingrassia said in an e-mail sent to the Associated Press while he was on a fishing trip in the Southwest. Ingrassia's remarks come three months after he was passed over for the managing editor job at The Wall Street Journal, the top editorial position at the newspaper. His departure would make him the highest ranking executive to leave Dow Jones since the financial-news publisher agreed to be bought this month by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (AP)

First Magnus Financial Corp. filed for bankruptcy less than a week after the Tucson-based national mortgage lender suspended operations. The lender's total assets were estimated at more than $942 million and its total liabilities at nearly $813 million in the bankruptcy petition, which was filed in US Bankruptcy Court in Tucson. First Magnus, which originated home loans and then sold bundled loans into the secondary loan market, stopped taking mortgage loan applications and fired 99 percent of its 6,000 employees Thursday. (AP)