Southwest to get takeoff, landing rights at LaGuardia

The government will let Southwest Airlines and Virgin America buy takeoff and landing rights at New York’s LaGuardia Airport that American Airlines and US Airways agreed to sell to win approval for their merger.

The airlines disclosed Thursday that the Federal Aviation Administration had approved transfer of the rights, which are also called slots, earlier this week.

Last month, American and US Airways agreed to give up some of their slots at LaGuardia and Washington’s Reagan National Airport to settle an antitrust lawsuit that the Justice Department filed to block their merger. 

Southwest to end service for three small markets

Southwest Airlines said Thursday that it will end service in June to Key West, Fla.; Jackson, Miss.; and Branson, Mo., because it can’t make money serving the smaller markets.

The changes come as the company works on folding AirTran Airways into the Southwest brand by the end of 2014. The Dallas-based airline is the nation’s fourth-biggest airline by passenger traffic.

Southwest said the closures will eliminate 39 jobs and the employees will be offered jobs in other cities or given severance packages.

JPMorgan cash card users may have been hacked

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Thursday that about 465,000 users of a prepaid cash card may have had their personal information hacked.

The bank’s UCard is used in corporate or government prepaid benefit programs, such as food stamps, unemployment benefits, or tax refunds. Corporations use UCard to pay workers who don’t have checking accounts.

The hackers breached the UCard website from mid-July to mid-September, said Michael Fusco, a spokesman for JPMorgan.

– From staff and news services