Air Canada

A group led by Air Canada yesterday won the bidding war for Continental Airlines Holdings with a $450 million offer that will give it a controlling stake in the carrier when it emerges from bankruptcy reorganization. The move marks a further globalization of the airline industry. In July, British Airways agreed to pay $750 million for a 44 percent voting stake in USAir Group Inc., based in Arlington, Va. USAir has 65 percent of the flights from Philadelphia International Airport.

A group composed of Air Canada and Air Partners yesterday won the bidding war for Continental Airlines Holdings Inc. with a $450 million offer that will give it a controlling stake in the carrier when it emerges from bankruptcy reorganization. Under the deal, which is expected to take effect early next year, Air Canada and Fort Worth's Air Partners each will get a 27.5 percent stake in the carrier, with warrants allowing them to increase their holdings. Continental's unsecured creditors, who have approved the deal, will get 35.6 percent of the restructured airline.

Less than a year after a small domestic carrier ended its pioneeing ban on smoking, a major international airline serving the continental United States is about to fly smokeless on selected routes. In a three-month experiment beginning Sunday, Air Canada will prohibit cigarette smoking on flights between the New York area and Montreal and Toronto. "It's a matter of customer preference," explained Air Canada spokeswoman Esther Szynkarsky. "Fifteen years ago, the split between smoking and nonsmoking seats was 50-50.

Continental Airlines Inc. emerged from nearly 2 1/2 years under bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a reorganization plan that gives a majority interest to Air Canada and Air Partners LP, a group of Texas investors. Under the deal, Air Canada and Air Partners have put up $450 million to acquire about 60 percent of Continental's common stock. Continental's unsecured creditors took most of the remaining stock, under an arrangement in which the assets of 53 subsidiaries will be pooled into four units that will distribute stock and cash in proportion to an assumed value of the creditors' claims.

MONTREAL - Hockey fans around the league are not exactly setting the example for decent behavior. After the Flyers defeated the Capitals in Game 7 Tuesday on a power-play goal by Joffrey Lupul, fans in Washington threw trash and bottles at the Flyers as they left the ice. One bottle hit center Jeff Carter as he was doing a live interview on Comcast SportsNet. The night before, fans in Montreal staged a small riot in the streets and trashed police cars after the Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins in their Game 7. It's not exactly the image the sport needs.

The IAAF has received the results of gender tests on Caster Semenya, winner of the women's 800-meter world title last month, and will meet with the South African runner before completing its report. In an e-mail to the Associated Press, IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said yesterday he could not confirm a story in Australia's Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that said tests show Semenya has male and female sexual organs. The Australian newspaper reported in its today's editions that medical reports on the 18-year-old Semenya indicate she has no ovaries, but rather has internal male testes, which are producing large amounts of testosterone.

LONDON CONSERVATIVES DON'T CHEAT MORE The chairman of Britain's ruling Conservative Party denied yesterday that its politicians were more prone to adultery than members of parliament from the opposition Labor party. "There is no proof that there are more extramarital affairs on the Conservative than on the Labor side," Sir Norman Fowler told reporters. He was speaking after countryside minister Tim Yeo, a strong supporter of Prime Minister John Major's campaign for stronger values, revealed that he had fathered an illegitimate child.

A group of Montreal Expos who threw a rowdy beer-bash aboard a chartered Air Canada jet this week will have to pay for the damages out of their own pockets, team management said yesterday. But the most lasting damage from the flight might have come from comments made by Expos second baseman Mike Lansing. Lansing, upset at having to listen to preflight safety instructions in both English and French, burst out, "We don't have to listen to this crap. Everybody here understands English, at least for now," he said, referring to Montreal's bilingual status.

An airline subsidiary of Air Canada, airAlliance, plans to start flights between Philadelphia and Montreal June 4, with introductory round-trip fares of $183. The twice-daily flights are scheduled to take one hour, 40 minutes to Montreal and one hour, 55 minutes to Philadelphia. The airAlliance service using 37-seat Dash-8 turboprop airplanes will go head-to-head with three daily USAir jet flights, which fly the route in about 1 1/2 hours. United Airlines will handle ground servicing for airAlliance at Philadelphia International Airport.

Four players and both managers were suspended yesterday by the National League for their part in a beanball war that led to several bench-clearing incidents between the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros three days earlier. Reds reliever Xavier Hernandez was given the largest suspension, eight games, for "instigating a bench-clearing incident," according to a statement from NL president Leonard Coleman. Reds outfielder Ron Gant was suspended for four games, and manager Davey Johnson received a two-game suspension.

The IAAF has received the results of gender tests on Caster Semenya, winner of the women's 800-meter world title last month, and will meet with the South African runner before completing its report. In an e-mail to the Associated Press, IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said yesterday he could not confirm a story in Australia's Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that said tests show Semenya has male and female sexual organs. The Australian newspaper reported in its today's editions that medical reports on the 18-year-old Semenya indicate she has no ovaries, but rather has internal male testes, which are producing large amounts of testosterone.

MONTREAL - Hockey fans around the league are not exactly setting the example for decent behavior. After the Flyers defeated the Capitals in Game 7 Tuesday on a power-play goal by Joffrey Lupul, fans in Washington threw trash and bottles at the Flyers as they left the ice. One bottle hit center Jeff Carter as he was doing a live interview on Comcast SportsNet. The night before, fans in Montreal staged a small riot in the streets and trashed police cars after the Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins in their Game 7. It's not exactly the image the sport needs.

It was only three weeks ago that this region saw a vision as rare as an Eagles Super Bowl appearance: the normally cold-numbed Mummers strutting in 65-degree warmth. Ironically, that extraordinarily mild start to the new year might help explain what is going on outside today. Partly because the East Coast winter was so slow to get going, said Geoff Cornish, a meteorologist at the Pennsylvania State University, in State College, Pa., sea-surface temperatures off the Delmarva coast are 2 to 4 degrees above average.

The nation is at war and the economy is slipping. In the world of golf, equipment manufacturers are struggling and the number of rounds played is down across the country. But on the PGA Tour, all is well. That, essentially, was the rosy scenario presented by commissioner Tim Finchem when he met with a contingent of golf reporters in Houston last week on the eve of the Tour Championship for his annual, so-called "State of the Tour" address. "As I stand here today," Finchem said at Champions Golf Club, "I am confident of two things: One, the PGA Tour is stronger today than it has ever been, and, two, over the next five years, it will be stronger still.

Gordie Howe is one of the fortunate ones. "Mr. Hockey" played well enough, long enough, to make sure that he didn't have to worry about money when he finally called it a career. But he's well aware of the many horror stories out there, from the teammates and rivals who couldn't afford to live the good life once their playing days ended. "George Gardner was a goaltender with Detroit for a while," Howe remembered. "The poor guy was working in Vancouver, as a baggage man for Air Canada.

Six major airlines are joining forces in the largest yet of a wave of worldwide marketing and service alliances that has swept through commercial aviation in recent years. The Star Alliance, announced earlier this month, is bringing together United Airlines, Lufthansa German Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), Air Canada and Thai Airways International. Varig, the Brazilian carrier, plans to join the alliance later this year. Three of the airlines, Lufthansa, SAS and United, already have a cooperative pact with one another, and have immunity from U.S. antitrust laws so they may schedule flights and set prices jointly.

A group of Montreal Expos who threw a rowdy beer-bash aboard a chartered Air Canada jet this week will have to pay for the damages out of their own pockets, team management said yesterday. But the most lasting damage from the flight might have come from comments made by Expos second baseman Mike Lansing. Lansing, upset at having to listen to preflight safety instructions in both English and French, burst out, "We don't have to listen to this crap. Everybody here understands English, at least for now," he said, referring to Montreal's bilingual status.

Four players and both managers were suspended yesterday by the National League for their part in a beanball war that led to several bench-clearing incidents between the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros three days earlier. Reds reliever Xavier Hernandez was given the largest suspension, eight games, for "instigating a bench-clearing incident," according to a statement from NL president Leonard Coleman. Reds outfielder Ron Gant was suspended for four games, and manager Davey Johnson received a two-game suspension.

An airline subsidiary of Air Canada, airAlliance, plans to start flights between Philadelphia and Montreal June 4, with introductory round-trip fares of $183. The twice-daily flights are scheduled to take one hour, 40 minutes to Montreal and one hour, 55 minutes to Philadelphia. The airAlliance service using 37-seat Dash-8 turboprop airplanes will go head-to-head with three daily USAir jet flights, which fly the route in about 1 1/2 hours. United Airlines will handle ground servicing for airAlliance at Philadelphia International Airport.

Want to travel, but don't have the cash? Just charge it. According to a survey done for a credit card company, that's exactly what a majority of Americans plan to do this summer. At least 65 percent of people planning a vacation said they would charge all or part of the trip's cost to a credit card, according to the survey conducted on behalf of MasterCard. The study also found that 48 percent planned to charge $500 to $1,000 by the time their holiday was completed. Seventy-seven percent said they would pay for the vacation within one to three months, and 14 percent said they would pay off their charge bill in three to six months.