EU agency certifies new Dassault jet
Dassault Aviation's new jet, the Falcon 8X, has been certified for operation by the European Aviation Safety Agency, the French aerospace company said Monday.
Dassault's completion facility in Little Rock already has 12 of the aircraft in cabin outfitting.
A news release said the company expects Federal Aviation Administration certification "in the coming weeks."
In April, the Falcon 8X completed a global proving tour, making 65 flights to destinations from North, Central and South America to Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The Falcon 8X will offer the greatest ranges and longest cabin of any Falcon, allowing it to fly passengers comfortably from New York to Beijing or Los Angeles to Moscow nonstop.
-- David Smith
Diet Pepsi's classic formula will return
PURCHASE, N.Y. -- PepsiCo Inc., struggling to cope with declining sales, is bringing back its old Diet Pepsi formula less than a year after phasing it out.
Diet Pepsi, which was reformulated in August to drop the artificial sweetener aspartame, will be sold in its old recipe as Diet Pepsi Classic Sweetener blend in retro packaging, PepsiCo said Monday. As part of a broader revamp of its diet-cola lineup, the company also is renaming Pepsi Max as Pepsi Zero Sugar in the U.S. to more clearly show that the beverage has zero calories.
While PepsiCo says that Diet Pepsi without aspartame will continue to be the company's primary diet cola, reviving the drink's old recipe signals that the new version -- an attempt to woo consumers increasingly wary of aspartame -- hasn't been a hit. Diet Pepsi's sales volume fell 5.8 percent in 2015 and dropped roughly 11 percent at retail during the first quarter of 2016, according to data from Beverage Digest, which reported on the changes earlier.
"Consumers want choice in diet colas, so we're refreshing our U.S. lineup to provide three options that meet differing needs and taste preferences," Gina Anderson, a spokesman for Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo, said in a statement.
-- Bloomberg News
StubHub, Yankees agree to $100M deal
NEW YORK -- The New York Yankees have agreed to a 6 1/2-year, $100 million deal with StubHub that will put the eBay subsidiary in charge of reselling Yankees tickets, according to a person familiar with the matter.
StubHub will replace Ticketmaster, which currently runs the team's ticket-resale business -- Yankees Ticket Exchange.
The deal ends a long standoff between the Yankees and StubHub, which had allowed Major League Baseball tickets to be sold at a minimum price far lower than what the Yankees would like. The accord was earlier reported by ESPN.
This year, the Yankees stopped accepting electronically delivered, print-at-home tickets for entry into the stadium, in part because of their fight with StubHub. According to the Yankees, ticket fraud is enabled by third-party ticket resellers like StubHub, with which the Yankees have an agreement to honor fake tickets when possible. When that happens, StubHub must pay the team a penalty. Last season, the Yankees honored five to six fraudulent tickets per game on average, bringing StubHub's fees for the season to more than $100,000.
StubHub sets the minimum listing price for Major League Baseball games at just $6. Under Ticketmaster, the Yankees Ticket Exchange had set an artificial price floor that is dynamic, meaning it varied based on the game, section and seat.
Under its new Yankees deal, StubHub will advertise inside the stadium, the person said. The new pact will kick in after the All-Star break, the person said. StubHub didn't immediately respond to an email request for comment.
-- Bloomberg News
Crash victim's car had ruptured air bag
TOKYO -- Honda Motor Co. said a Takata Corp. air bag ruptured in a fatal accident in Malaysia on Sunday, raising the number of deaths linked to the faulty devices to 15 worldwide.
The driver of a 2005 Honda City subcompact died after a crash in the western state of Selangor, Honda's Malaysia unit said in an emailed statement Monday. The model was included in a May 2015 recall, according to the Japanese automaker.
The fatality is the third in three months involving Takata inflators in Honda cars in Malaysia and follows the death of a pregnant woman in July 2014. Takata inflators can malfunction and spray metal shards at vehicle occupants, a flaw that prompted recalls of more than 100 million air bags worldwide. Ten motorists have died in the U.S., and Honda said in January it was investigating a fatality in India.
No official cause of death for Sunday's accident has been yet determined, Honda Malaysia said. While three recall notices were sent to the owner of the vehicle involved, the air bag wasn't replaced, the company said.
-- Bloomberg News
Starbucks plans deeper ties with India
SEATTLE -- Starbucks Corp. wants to go big in India.
The world's largest coffee chain, which has fewer than 100 cafes in the world's second-most populous country, is expanding its roasting capacity in India as it seeks to open new stores in coming years. Starbucks also will start selling Indian coffee at its Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle in a bid to expose U.S. customers to beans grown in the country's Coorg region, said John Culver, president of Starbucks' China and Asia Pacific Region.
"People look to us for coffee leadership," Culver said. "Our customers want that exploration of flavors from all parts of the world, and this is just one step in that direction."
Starbucks has been pursuing growth across the globe as the U.S. becomes increasingly saturated with its cafes. The Seattle-based company is investing money to expand in South Africa, China and Colombia, and also is planning its first Italian location for 2017.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 06/28/2016