For the first time in 30 years, U.S. regulators strengthened air-quality standards for allowable levels of lead in air, saying it would help protect the health of children.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday it will tighten airborne lead levels by 90 percent to 0.15 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air. Metal smelters, iron and steel foundries and battery makers are the primary sources of lead, said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch.

"Lead levels around the country have plummeted since lead came out of gasoline," O'Donnell said in an interview. "There's still higher-than-desired levels in many places" in the United States.

Levels of airborne lead nationwide have fallen almost 97 percent since 1980, primarily after lead was removed from gasoline, according to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. More than 1,300 tons of lead are emitted into the air each year, the EPA said.

"In tightening the lead standard by 90 percent, I relied upon the recommendations of EPA staff and the science of more than 6,000 studies since 1990," Johnson said on a conference call. "This action will improve public health, especially for children."

Lead is a neurotoxin that interferes with a child's brain development. Exposure to even low levels of lead in the air may lead to developmental damage, including lower IQ levels. Exposure later in life can increase risks of cardiovascular illness and mortality.

The Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, a panel that advises the EPA, recommended 0.02 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air. The previous standard of 1.5 micrograms was set in 1978 when children's average blood lead levels were seven times higher than today, John Balbus, chief health scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, said in a statement.

"While EPA's own analysis justifies an even lower lead standard, this tenfold reduction will go a long way to protecting children most at risk from airborne lead," Balbus, who is also a member of the EPA Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, said. "It's refreshing to see the agency follow the science and the advice of its experts in making this decision."

Regulations since 1978 have nearly eliminated the use of lead in fuels and paints. Lead smelters, such as one in Jefferson County, Mo., are the largest sources of lead emissions, the Manhattan-based Environmental Defense Fund said. >>>>

Man charged with bringing pipe bomb on airplane

A Las Vegas man attempted to bring a pipe bomb on board a jet at Long Island MacArthur Airport yesterday morning, federal officials said in court documents.

The suspected pipe bomb that was found in Steven Nobles' baggage "could have functioned. It could have detonated," federal prosecutor John Durham said at Nobles' arraignment in U.S. District Court in Central Islip late yesterday afternoon.

But Nobles' attorney, federal public defender Randi Chavis, said Nobles, 20, had not intended to harm anyone and inadvertently placed the device in his luggage as he was returning to visit his mother after a year of working on Long Island.

Sources familiar with the investigation said that at this point federal prosecutors and FBI agents do not believe Nobles was bent on terrorism, but, at the very least, displayed poor judgment.

Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for Eastern District U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell, said it was not clear whether the bomb could have gone off accidentally. FBI agents and Suffolk police were still analyzing the device, Nardoza said.

Federal prosecutor Durham argued that Nobles should be denied bail.

Federal magistrate Kathleen Tomlinson denied bail to Nobles, pending a hearing today, saying Nobles "certainly was old enough to take into the account the circumstances under which he was operating this morning."

According to a complaint filed by FBI agent James McCarthy, Nobles was stopped at 7:28 a.m. by Transportation Security Administration officers during a routine search when they noticed a 7-inch-long knife in his carry-on bag. Nobles was preparing to board Southwest Flight 384 to Las Vegas.

After searching Nobles' bag, the officers then noticed the bomb, McCarthy said.

Suffolk Police and the FBI were called and part of the airport was temporarily evacuated.

A search of Nobles' luggage found "explosive fireworks, electrical circuit boards, a battery with electrical tape and 14 . . . .22-caliber rounds used in a nailgun to drive nails into concrete," McCarthy said.

McCarthy said in the complaint that Nobles told him that "the device in the carry-on bag was a pipe bomb." Nobles also said he "built the pipe bomb using a metal pipe, fuses and gunpowder from M-80 fireworks, smoke bombs and other fireworks," McCarthy said. In addition, the agent said Nobles told him he hoped that when the device went off it would "cause a giant smoke cloud, a flash of light and hopefully a loud noise," McCarthy said.

However, Nobles "denied intending to detonate the pipe bomb on the airplane and claimed that he had inadvertently carried it to the airport," McCarthy said.

In addition to being charged with bringing a pipe bomb on an airplane, Nobles was also charged with bringing fireworks on an airplane, which are considered explosive or incendiary devices under federal law, and a concealed weapon, the knife. Nobles faces up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted.

Nobles' stepsister, Alexandria Stills, said whatever Nobles was doing, he would never intentionally hurt anyone.

"I'm sure Steven is giving the police his information. He's a good kid," said Stills, 20, of Central Islip. "I don't think that he had anything to do with any type of bomb. He does electrical work. I'm thinking that whatever he had in his bag was related to his work."

ROBERT E. KESSLER

Breathing healthier air

This is in response to "Our toxic air; Chicago-area residents face some of the highest risks of getting sick from pollution, but the EPA isn't making it widely known" (Page 1, Sept. 29). The story may leave some readers with the alarming impression that Cook County has the nation's worst air pollution. That is not the case.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency doesn't dispute that the Chicago metropolitan area has persistent air pollution problems with significant implications for public health. However, EPA's comprehensive air quality data—which factor in all emissions from cars, trucks and other sources in addition to those from industry—clearly show Chicago's air pollution is about average for a big city.

Reducing air pollution in Chicago and other big cities is a work in progress. Ratcheting down the levels of hazardous air pollutants is a priority for EPA. In the Chicago area, air-monitoring data show that pollutants such as lead, manganese and nickel have declined over the last 15 years.

Another EPA priority is enforcing the strict limits set by our air permits and we have been vigilant in doing so. In the last three years alone, EPA enforcement actions against violators in Illinois and northwest Indiana have reduced 15 million pounds a year of hazardous air pollution.

There is more work to be done before Chicagoans can breathe the cleaner, healthier air they deserve. EPA is committed to continuing our work with help from our partners in Illinois and the city. The EPA database cited in the Tribune story is a useful screening tool that helps us to focus efforts to address hazardous air pollutants. Another EPA database that addresses Chicago's air quality can be found on EPA's Web site at http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/nata1999/index.html.

Lynn Buhl

E.P.A. Toughens Standard on Lead Emissions; Change Is the First in 3 Decades

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday set stringent new standards for airborne lead particles, following the recommendations of its science advisers and cutting the maximum allowable concentrations to a tenth of the previous standard. It was the first change in federal lead standards in three decades.

But the cleanup of areas with excessive lead levels is not required for more than eight years, and the system of monitors that detect the toxic contaminant is frayed. Currently, 133 monitors are in operation nationwide, down from about 800 in 1980, an E.P.A. spokeswoman, Cathy Milbourn, said. The agency is working on rebuilding this network, to include more than 300 monitors, Ms. Milbourn said.

The new standards set the limits for exposure at 0.15 micrograms per cubic meter of air, down from 1.5 micrograms, and well within the outer limit of 0.2 micrograms recommended by the advisers.

The agency’s administrator, Stephen L. Johnson, said in a statement, “With these stronger standards, a new generation of Americans are being protected from harmful lead emissions.”

Mr. Johnson’s usual critics in environmental groups offered uncharacteristic words of praise. “This is a great step in the right direction,” said Gina Solomon, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

But Robert N. Steinwurtzel, a lawyer for the Association of Battery Recyclers, a group of six companies that use a smelting process to disassemble and recycle as many as 115 million car batteries annually, called the new standard problematic. “It potentially threatens the viability of the lead recycling industry,” Mr. Steinwurtzel said.

Association officials traveled to the White House earlier this month to plead their case for a less stringent standard. Battery recyclers, along with utilities, cement kilns and metalworking shops, are the major emitters of airborne lead.

Lead’s toxicity has been recognized for more than a century; the metal is associated with the impairment of neural development in infants and young children, and with cardiovascular disease and premature death in older people.

For more than 30 years, federal, state and local governments have tried to reduce exposure, by controlling industrial emissions, removing lead from gasoline and mounting campaigns to remove lead-based paint from homes. Some of the highest lead levels in blood can be found in children in older cities like Philadelphia, Providence, R.I., and Cleveland.

Bruce P. Lanphear, a professor in the health sciences department at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia who is an expert on lead toxicity, welcomed the agency’s decision to follow the recommendations of its science advisers.

The new standard, Professor Lanphear said, “will make a difference, but won’t lead to dramatic reductions” in blood-lead levels of younger children, which are now 80 percent to 95 percent lower than they were in the 1970s. Improvements in blood-lead levels had “begun to plateau” in recent years, he added, and the new standard could result in renewed progress.

FELICITY BARRINGER

An oxygen cylinder caused the explosion that blew a car-sized hole in a Qantas jet last month, forcing an emergency landing, air safety officials said Friday.

The release of the interim report by Julian Walsh, acting executive director of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, confirmed earlier suspicions by investigators that an exploding oxygen tank was the cause.

The Boeing 747-438 aircraft, carrying 365 people, was flying over the South China Sea July 5 when the explosion blew a hole in the fuselage five-feet in diameter, causing a loss of cabin pressure.

Walsh said one of the seven emergency oxygen cylinders below the cabin floor had exploded, but did not say what caused the tank to burst.

"On the basis of the physical damage to the aircraft's forward cargo hold and cabin, it is evident that the number 4 passenger oxygen cylinder sustained a failure that allowed a sudden and complete release of the pressurized contents," Walsh told reporters in releasing the report.

The plane — en route from London to Melbourne, Australia — rapidly descended thousands of feet and flew about 300 miles to Manila, where it made a successful emergency landing.

No one was injured, but questions were raised about the much-lauded safety of Qantas Airways, which has never lost a jet aircraft because of an accident.

In the weeks after the incident, Qantas planes experienced a number of other problems, including a loss of hydraulic fuel that led to an emergency landing, failure of landing gear, and detached panels.

The problems prompted the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Australia's aviation agency, to launch a review of Qantas Airways' safety standards.

Qantas earlier this month temporarily pulled six planes from service because of irregularities in maintenance records. Qantas said it was a record-keeping issue and there were no safety implications for the aircraft. >>>>

Computer problems at a Federal Aviation Administration center outside Atlanta caused substantial delays Tuesday at some major airports across the country, including those in Boston, Atlanta and Chicago.

The trouble, which developed about 1:25 p.m., Eastern time, was a failure of a processing system that handles flight plans filed by airlines before their aircraft take off. The plans include information like departure and arrival points, the type of aircraft, the route, the name of the pilot and the number of people on board.

As a result of the failure, the agency shifted the processing to a backup system in Salt Lake City, which generally shares the processing load with the Atlanta center, and airlines were told that some flight plans would have to be refiled before planes could leave the ground.

The problem was “pretty much resolved” by early evening, said an F.A.A. spokeswoman, Diane Spitaliere. Though the Atlanta center remained out of service Tuesday night, Ms. Spitaliere said, the Salt Lake City facility was able to handle the full load.

An agency spokesman, Paul Takemoto, emphasized that passengers’ safety had not been affected, since the trouble did not compromise the agency’s ability to track flights in the air.

The F.A.A. said it could not estimate how many flights had been involved, but Ms. Spitaliere said they most likely included some arriving from and departing for overseas locations.

The most serious delays took place at Logan International Airport in Boston, Hartsfield in Atlanta, and O’Hare and Midway in Chicago.

For several hours during the afternoon, officials placed holds on arriving traffic at both Logan and Hartsfield. Planes bound for both were told to wait at their departure points, according to an F.A.A. Web site that tracks airport delays.

The holds were later lifted, but flights into both airports remained delayed into Tuesday evening.

In Chicago, flights from Midway were delayed as much as 1 hour 45 minutes, the agency’s Web site said. Delays at O’Hare averaged about 30 minutes.

Baltimore-Washington International Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina also experienced delays of an hour or more during the afternoon, the F.A.A. said.

There were delays as well at airports in the New York area, though these were largely due to weather and wind conditions. Flights to Newark Liberty International Airport were halted briefly because of turbulence, while flights to La Guardia Airport were delayed by an average of 41 minutes and those to Kennedy International Airport by an average of 65 minutes.

The trouble coincided with the winding down of the busy summer travel season. Generally, about 5,000 aircraft are in the skies over the United States at any given time on an average summer weekday.

MICHELINE MAYNARD

Fliers more upset about cutbacks than high airfares and additional fees in study

Deteriorating airline customer service has helped drive flier satisfaction to its lowest level in three years, according to a study released Tuesday, and for many it has become an even bigger concern than higher airfares and additional fees.

Poor airline customer service was the leading factor in a decline in customer satisfaction this year, according to the 2008 North American Airline Satisfaction Study from the consumer research group J.D. Power and Associates.

The study found that customer dissatisfaction with the helpfulness and courtesy of flight staff, gate agents and crew was twice as large as dissatisfaction with pricing.

"Passengers are being affected by the ramifications of carriers making staff cutbacks, and have expressed that performance and attitudes of airline staff are suffering," said Sam Thanawalla, director of the global hospitality and travel practice at J.D. Power, in a statement.

The study measured customer satisfaction levels for traditional and low-cost airlines in seven areas: cost, crew, in-flight services, aircraft, check-in, the boarding deplaning and baggage claim processes, and the reservation and check-in process.

For the third year in a row, low-cost carrier JetBlue ranked the highest overall, scoring well in six out of seven of the categories, while Continental Airlines and Alaska Airlines tied for first among traditional carriers. Continental continued a three-year streak among the old-line airlines.

Only Alaska Airlines and Air Canada saw their customer satisfaction scores increase. All others saw scores decline.

Many of the airlines allow customers to check in online or with airport kiosks to speed up the check-in and boarding process, and cut staffing costs. Alaska Airlines, a major carrier along the West Coast, has relied heavily on kiosks, as well as an automated baggage drop as part of a patented system called "Airport of the Future."

"It allows our customer service agents to handle twice the amount of customers than we usually would," said Paul McElroy, spokesman for Alaska Airlines.

The J.D. Power study found that more passengers were booking their flights online in 2008 than in 2007. Older passengers were more likely to prefer complementary meals, while younger ones preferred in-flight movies. And customers were increasingly likely to choose an airline based on its rewards program. >>>>

The Beijing-Tianjin passenger railway Sunday completed laying its tracks, making it possible for the high-speed train to open as scheduled for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

The 120km-long railway is the first in the mainland to have trains that reach 300kmh and will shorten travel between the two cities from about an hour to 30 minutes, with a minimum interval between trains of three minutes, officials have said.

Construction of the railway's signal, telecommunication and electrical supply systems are next in line, after which fast-speed trains will conduct test runs starting from February.

The railway is scheduled to begin operations on August 1, a week before Olympic Games.

There will be five stations along the rail line - Beijing Southern Railway Station, Yizhuang in southeastern Beijing, Yongle and Wuqing in Tianjin, and Tianjin Railway Station.

Its operation will enable more passengers to travel between Beijing and Tianjin, and help speed up the integration of the regional economies of the two major cities of North China.

The Ministry of Railways has said in its mid- and long-term plan that a fast passenger transport rail network will be formed by the year 2020 to link up China's major cities and cities in three regions.

"The completion of laying rail tracks on the Beijing-Tianjin high-speed railway signifies a breakthrough in high-speed railway construction technology that China has mastered," said Liu Zhijun, minister of Railways.

The ministry said that many new technologies were used in the project for the first time in China's railway building history, which together enhances the railway's life span and produces low levels of pollution and noise. Up to 86 percent of the railway is built on bridges.

The Beijing-Tianjin railway has been exemplary for other high-speed railway projects under construction, Liu said.

The emergence of travel agency sites such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity signified the first wave of booking airfares online. Then the pre-eminence of travel search engines such as Kayak, Mobissimo, and SideStep heralded the second wave. But now, more and more of the airlines' best fares are not being shared with other channels.

Today, you can never truly feel you've found the best possible deal if you haven't surfed over to a given airline's own branded site. The bad news about visiting branded sites is that it can make searching for the lowest price a more time-consuming and cumbersome process. The good news is there are some great deals hiding on the airlines' own sites.

Today there are three key reasons to shop branded airline sites:

• Lower fares. A few days ago, I found a Web-only fare of just $159 round-trip from Denver to Los Angeles on Frontier Airlines at that carrier's site. The best rate produced by the search engine Kayak for that route on those dates was $220—also on Frontier and also via Frontier's site, but not as low as what was available at frontierairlines.com.

• More choices. Many carriers provide some but not all of their inventory to third-party sites. Therefore, even if you find a matching fare on another site, you probably won't have access to all the available flight options, particularly if an airline offers many frequencies on that route. For example, a few days ago I found 121 outbound and return flight options for a trip from Boston to Atlanta on Delta Air Lines' site. The best Kayak could do was provide 28 flight options for the same trip.

• No fees. By the way, Kayak's lowest fare on that Boston-Atlanta itinerary was $654 via CheapTickets, compared to $648 on Delta's site. That's because unlike many third-party sites, most airlines don't charge booking fees. In fact, in this new era of carriers charging for everything from baggage to window seats, it's going to become increasingly more expensive to book airline seats through any channel—offline or online—other than the airlines' own sites, because that's where the airlines are steering you.

A recent shift in finding deals

Throughout the relatively short lifespan of the Internet, it hasn't always been this way. For several years, in fact, it was common to find a better fare for a given airline on a travel agency site such as Expedia, Orbitz, or Travelocity than on that airline's own site. Even after the advent of travel search engines such as Kayak, Mobissimo, and SideStep, it was clear the airlines were not always saving their best deals for their homepages.

Consider what we found when we conducted extensive apples-to-apples testing of travel sites for Consumer Reports WebWatch in 2004 and 2005.

• When we examined U.S. travel sites selling airline tickets on international routes in September 2004, we found the leading third-party sites—Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity—were much better at providing lowest fares and even "closest" fares (within $10 of the lowest price). We noted: "Collectively, the branded airline sites did not perform well by providing lowest and closest fares only 19% of the time." This compared unfavorably with Orbitz at 79%, Expedia at 55%, and Travelocity at 35%. However, we also lauded "impressive performance" by some individual airline sites with smaller samplings, particularly Northwest/KLM at 31%.

• The following year, in March 2005, WebWatch conducted an investigation into purchasing first-class airline tickets online. We conducted 144 trials with Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, and much smaller samplings from the branded sites for American, Continental, and Delta. This time the results had shifted: In 36 trials, Continental provided the lowest fare 31% of the time, which trailed Expedia at 40%, but tied with Travelocity at 31% and led Orbitz at 28%.

It was clear the tide was starting to shift by 2005. In closely examining the performance of the branded airline sites, we found that none of the three travel agency sites provided a lower fare on Continental than was available on Continental's own site. However, one or more of the agency sites did provide lower fares for American and Delta than those two airlines provided on their own sites, besting Delta's site 21% of the time and American's site 30% of the time. We concluded: "Continental's performance would indicate it is more aggressive than its two airline rivals in providing competitive fares under its own online banner."

What seemed like the emergence of a trend in 2005 has become a full-blown reality in 2008. Many airlines—regardless of their size or route maps—are providing some of the sweetest deals on their own branded sites.

It's all about costs

This shift has been intentional on the part of airlines, as they strive to cut costs in every possible way. Distribution remains a significant expense, and it's led to intense analysis of every dollar spent on outside commissions to online or offline agencies, as well as in-house reservations departments. The bottom line is that a branded site remains the cheapest way for any airline to sell its seats.

That's why George Hobica, publisher of Airfarewatchdog, points out that nowadays airlines frequently save their best fares for their own branded sites. Airfarewatchdog is an excellent resource for self-bookers, and its Top Ten Tips provide valuable advice about how to search, when to search, where to search, and how often to search.

An important thing to remember whenever you're shopping at a third-party site is that not all airlines are included in their inventory, particularly low-cost carriers such as Southwest. That's why Airfarewatchdog's mantra is that the big guys—including Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, and the travel search engines—don't always capture all the best airfares. Therefore Airfarewatchdog advises: " Increasingly, airlines have 'private' sales, reserving their very best fares for their own sites. With the exception of Southwest, which sells fares on its own site exclusively, most of the airlines that do this are smaller domestic airlines or large international carriers, but we've even seen Delta do it, and we're not talking here just about last minute weekend fares. Alaska, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, JetBlue, Malaysia, Frontier, Qantas, Singapore, SAS, Virgin America, and others are using this strategy. Spirit Airlines frequently has one-cent, one-dollar, and other crazy low fares on its site only."

In fact, over the last few weeks Airfarewatchdog was promoting branded fare discounts such as these:

• USA3000: Tampa to Philadelphia, round-trip for $131

• American Airlines: New York to San Francisco, round-trip in business class for $1,519

• Allegiant Air: Orlando to Chattanooga, round-trip for $233

• Iberia: Boston to Venice (via Madrid), round-trip for $681

Most of these specials are not accessible on third-party sites. However, many of them do carry booking restrictions and caveats and are only available for a short time.

Can't it get easier?

Of course, you may be thinking ... it's hard enough to find a decent fare online, now I've got to surf to USA3000 and Allegiant Air? The booking process will be longer than the flight! It's a fair point. But the answer is that some focused research can pay off and the shopping process need not be overly complicated. If you're searching for the lowest price on a given route, you should know which airlines fly between those airports. If you're not sure, visit OAG. Then check out those airlines' sites directly.

There are other easy ways to find out about branded fares as well. Several years ago, Southwest instituted DING!, an application you can download after selecting up to 10 airports. When you "hear an audible notification" (as in ding!), you'll be alerted to discounted fares in your cities of choice. Other airlines offer similar products—such as American's DealFinder and Frontier's email alerts—that provide notifications for low fares on their sites.

If you frequent a given carrier, it also may pay to sign up for that airline's newsletter, which could contain notifications of special discounts and promotional codes. As Hobica points out, Virgin America recently offered a two-for-one sale between Los Angeles and New York for $140 round-trip—but it was promoted through the newsletter. Alaska Airlines frequently offers promotions in this way as well.

In the end, nothing beats comparative shopping. These days it usually doesn't pay to book the first deal you find. >>>>

United Airlines overnight has raised fares by as much as $60 for round-trip tickets, Bestfares.com CEO Tom Parsons said Friday.

Said Mr. Parsons:

If this airfare hike is matched by the other major carriers, it would be the 12th successful increase out of 17 attempts since December 20, 2007. Travelers flying over 1,500 air miles one-way between markets without a low-cost carrier have seen their airfares jump by $340 roundtrip in the past five months.

The Associated Press quoted United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski as saying United was "seriously considering" charging passengers on domestic trips for their first piece of checked luggage.

"It's part of all the work that we're doing to try to offset fuel costs," Ms. Urbanski told AP.

Bestfares.com said that United hiked fares $20 round trip for flights up to 400 miles, $40 for 401-750 miles and $60 for flights over 750 miles. "Many of these airfare increases only affect cities not served by a low-cost airline such as Southwest, Virgin America, JetBlue, Spirit or Frontier," Bestfares.com said.

TERRY MAXON

Flight delays could cost airlines more than $2 billion in wasted jet fuel this year, according to a congressional report released on Thursday.

The Joint Economic Committee study estimated that flight delays and congestion, especially in the New York region, are squeezing airlines at a time when the industry's financial condition is deteriorating rapidly due mainly to the unchecked cost of fuel.

"The airline industry is drowning in red ink," said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who introduced the report that more broadly found flight delays severely impact the economy.

Commercial aircraft burned an estimated 740 million gallons of excess jet fuel because of record flight delays in 2007, costing them $1.6 billion. The calculation assumes an average wholesale price of $2.15 per gallon.

If the industry's on-time performance this year is the same as last, then wasted fuel costs could exceed $2 billion, based on the sharply higher per-gallon price of jet fuel, said Schumer, a New York Democrat and chairman of the joint economic panel.

The committee analyzed flight times, fuel burn rates and aircraft type.

More than a quarter of flights operated by major U.S. airlines and their affiliates were delayed last year with on-time performance suffering most at New York-area airports. The New York region handles about a third of all domestic air traffic.

Bad weather and airline overscheduling is blamed for most delays. But Schumer and the industry say the aging air traffic control system managed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the central problem.

Airlines are straining financially under jet fuel prices -- now approaching $3 per gallon -- that have tripled this decade and currently represent roughly half of operating costs.

A handful of small carriers have ceased operations in recent months, unable to attain financing to restructure in bankruptcy.

Although big airlines have adequate cash for the moment, Wall Street analysts say liquidity is threatened by unabated and sharp increases in fuel, and new bankruptcies are possible if capacity is not cut sharply.

"No one is exempt from the threat," James May, the industry's top lobbyist as chief executive of the Air Transport Association, told Reuters in an interview this week.

Schumer said the best thing for the airlines is for oil producers to boost output to lower prices. May agrees and said the Bush administration should release some U.S. oil reserves to ease price pressures.

May said the industry is not looking for specific help from Congress.

Maureen Bavdek; John Crawley

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 Tuesday by the University of Michigan found customers giving airlines the worst grades since 2001, with the industry's overall scores dropping for the third straight year.

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, in the university's American Customer Satisfaction Index.

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.

While unhappiness with airlines is nothing new, this year's survey produced "really dismal numbers," said Claes Fornell, a University of Michigan business professor and director of the research center that compiled the data.

"There's no other industry anywhere that has so many basic mishaps in terms of not delivering the basics," he said. "They're supposed to deliver passengers with their luggage to a particular destination within a certain timeframe, and they frequently fail to do that."

Asked why scores have worsened so significantly, he said airlines' management has to be blamed despite some factors beyond their control such as higher jet-fuel costs and congested airports.

But passengers also are not blameless, according to Fornell.

"They buy primarily on price, and very little else," he said. "The result of that is very low service and a business model of cost-cutting that really leaves no one happy, certainly not the businesses, the shareholders or the flying public."

About 26,000 people responded to the survey during the first quarter of this year, rating their level of satisfaction as customers of companies in a variety of industries, including airlines. An American Customer Satisfaction Index, on a scale of 1 to 100, was created based on the responses to questions about overall satisfaction, intention to be a repeat customer and perception of quality, value and expectations.

The index for the airline industry as a whole fell to 62 from 63 last year, barely above its historical low of 61 in 2001. Southwest led the way with an index of 79, up from 76 last year.

"We're always excited and thrilled that we can offer some of the best customer service in the industry," Southwest spokeswoman Christi Day said.

After Southwest came a huge drop in customer satisfaction, with scores of 62 at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines and Continental. Delta Air Lines Inc. scored 60, and Northwest Airlines Corp. slipped to 57 from 61 in 2007. US Airways' score dropped to 54 from 61 a year ago, taking over the bottom spot from United, whose score held at 56.

Tempe, Ariz.-based, US Airways acknowledged its need to improve.

"While we still have work to do, we're confident that the investments we're making in reliability, convenience and appearance are making a positive impact," spokesman Morgan Durrant said. He noted that the carrier had the best on-time performance of the 10 largest airlines in first-quarter statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A spokeswoman for Chicago-based United, Robin Urbanski, said the carrier also recognized it has more work to do and is "working hard to fix the basics and provide a more consistent level of service."

Fornell said it is worrisome that the four big airlines looking to consolidate — Delta with Northwest, as agreed to last month, and United and US Airways — are at the bottom of the industry in customer satisfaction.

"When it comes to mergers, combining two negatives doesn't make a positive," he said.

DAVE CARPENTER

Ford Motor Co is recalling over 650,000 of its top-selling F-150 pickups as well as a Lincoln-branded truck because of a problem with the brake hose that could cause the vehicles to lose braking power.

The automaker has recalled 2005 and 2006 model year Ford F-150 and Lincoln Mark LT trucks, according to the recall notice posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on its website on Wednesday.

Ford trucks covered by the recall are equipped with 5.4-liter engines. The brake hose on those trucks can detach from an intake manifold, causing the driver to lose the "assist" function that provides additional power to the brakes, according to the safety notice.

The trucks could still be stopped with remaining braking power but it would require drivers to apply "more force to the pedal," Ford spokesman Wes Sherwood said.

He said Ford had received reports of 11 minor accidents but no injuries because of the brake hose defect.

The sweeping recall covers almost 606,000 vehicles in the United States and comes just as Ford is gearing up to launch all-new versions of its F-Series pickup truck line.

U.S. sales of the Ford trucks are down 16 percent this year in a downturn tied to high gasoline prices and a slumping U.S. housing market.

In addition to the trucks covered by the U.S. government recall, there are another 50,000 of the trucks on the road in Canada covered by a similar recall procedure, Ford said.

Ford said customers in the United States and Canada affected by the recall could have brake hoses replaced at Ford dealerships starting in late June.

Ford customers with questions can call 1-800-392-3673 for more information, the automaker said.

Kevin Krolicki, Gerald E. McCormick