Delta Air Lines

M Release: National Association of Home Builders' housing market index for July. Earnings: Crown Holdings; Delta Air Lines; IBM; Hasbro. T Release: Commerce housing starts for June. Session: Pa. House Insurance Comm., with Policy Committee, on health insurance rate increases. Earnings: JNJ; Fulton Financial W Session: Fed's Ben S. Bernanke on economic policy before Senate Banking, Housing, Urban Affairs Comm., Senate Finance Comm. on the Wall St. bailout.

2 more airlines drop travel agent commissions American and Continental airlines on yesterday joined Delta Air Lines in abolishing the commission they pay travel agents who sell tickets for their flights. The decisions - which come only three days after Atlanta-based Delta notified agents it would no longer pay commissions - virtually ensure that the nation's other major carriers will quickly move to abolish the commissions they are paying travel agents. The nation's airlines, which last year lost a combined $7 billion, paid travel agents an estimated $4 billion in commissions.

In the Region Coal-fired plant closing early NRG Energy Inc. , of Princeton, agreed to shut down its coal-fired Portland Generating Station in Mount Bethel, Pa., six months earlier than scheduled to settle a federal lawsuit over its emissions. NRG, which acquired the plant in December as part of its merger with GenOn Energy Inc. , will close the plant by June 1, 2014, rather than January 2015. The closure ends a lawsuit brought by the States of New Jersey and Connecticut for alleged noncompliance with the federal Clean Air Act. The 570 megawatt plant is located 26 miles northeast of Bethlehem on the Delaware River.

With Delta Air Lines flying under dark clouds in recent weeks, its problems have been natural fodder for comedians, television hosts and radio personalities. A rash of incidents, including a Delta jet landing at the wrong airport and another straying into the paths of other jets, has turned the airline, unwittingly, into prime material for satire. But Delta apparently isn't laughing. At least two radio stations report that they recently got telephone calls grounding their Delta advertising after spoofs of airline problems.

US Airways Group Inc. management confirmed Wednesday that the airline is studying a potential merger with bankrupt American Airlines. Chief executive officer Doug Parker said during a conference call with analysts and investors that US Airways has hired the Millstein & Co. restructuring firm, Barclays P.L.C. banking and financial services and the Latham & Watkins L.L.P. law firm to analyze a merger attempt. Parker made the announcement on the call to discuss fourth-quarter and 2011 earnings results.

As Americans travel this holiday season, with planes crowded and space tight, they may encounter a growing problem: oversized passengers who can't fit comfortably in a 17-inch-wide economy-class airplane seat. More than 30 percent of U.S. adults are categorized as obese, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention standards. And airlines have a variety of policies to deal with "passengers of size. " Enforcement of the rules is left to ticket and gate agents and flight attendants, and policing can fall short, as it did recently for frequent flier Steve Lapin of Elkins Park.

It's going to cost more to fly to Boston. Just how much more is the question. Southwest Airlines Co., which began flying nonstop from Philadelphia to Boston in June 2010, is eliminating the route effective Feb. 11, leaving only US Airways Group Inc. to fly there from here. In February 2010, Southwest announced, with great fanfare, that it would provide another option to get to Boston. The airline hoped to steal away business travelers with lower fares. Apparently, that did not happen.

The U.S. Transportation Department has given permission to US Airways Group and Northwest Airlines to temporarily suspend some China flights without losing rights to operate to that region in the future. Costly fuel compelled US Airways, the region's dominant airline, which carries two-thirds of passengers at Philadelphia International Airport, to announce in May that it planned to delay the launch of its new Philadelphia-Beijing service from 2009 until March 2010. Northwest also plans to suspend some cargo flights to China.

Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D., Pa.) and the Delaware County Council on Wednesday urged ConocoPhillips to sell its refinery in Trainer to a buyer that would keep the refinery operating as a manufacturing facility rather than as a fuel storage terminal. Prompted by rumors that potential buyers of the ConocoPhillips refinery in Trainer plan to shut down the plant, the elected leaders wrote Wednesday to ConoccoPhillips chief executive James Mulva to urge him to sell the plant to buyer that would operate it as a refinery, which would employ more people and require more investment than a fuel-storage facility.