Study ranks Delta No. 1 airline in U.S.
Delta Air Lines comes in first in a long-running study that ranks U.S. airlines by how often flights arrive on time and other statistical measures.
Academics at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., released their annual study, now in its 29th year, on Monday. They used 2018 data collected by the U.S. Transportation Department on rates of on-time arrivals, mishandled baggage, bumping passengers and consumer complaints.
Delta was the only carrier to improve in all four categories, the researchers said. It rose from second place last year.
JetBlue Airways ranked second, followed by Southwest Airlines and last year's winner, Alaska Airlines.
Low-fare carrier Frontier Airlines ranked last, just behind American Airlines.
Overall, the industry improved in three of the four categories in the study, including fewer passengers being involuntarily bumped from a flight. For several years, airlines have been cutting that rate by enticing more customers to take vouchers or other compensation in exchange for volunteering to get off oversold flights.
"They are buying out customers better than ever," said one of the lead researchers, Brent Bowen of Embry-Riddle.
-- The Associated Press
Owner of Chuck E. Cheese to go public
IRVING, Texas -- CEC Entertainment Inc., which owns 750 Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza stores in the U.S. and abroad, expects to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "CEC" in the second quarter.
It's the first time since 2015 that a restaurant chain will go public in the U.S. The last one was Brazilian steakhouse chain Fogo de Chao.
Dave & Buster's Entertainment, a food-and-arcade chain similar to Chuck E. Cheese, has more than tripled its share price to $53 since it went public in 2014. That was the same year CEC was bought by private-equity firm Apollo Global Management and taken private.
On Monday, CEC said it would combine with Leo Holdings Corp., a special purpose acquisition company backed by London-based private-equity firm Lion Capital. Leo will be renamed Chuck E. Cheese Brands Inc. CEC's executive team will continue to lead the company from its current headquarters in Irving, Texas.
The company got its start in 1977, when Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell opened Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose, Calif. The restaurant featured a cast of animatronic characters led by Chuck E. Cheese, a plucky rat in a bowler hat.
-- The Associated Press
Tesla cuts more jobs on its sales staff
Tesla Inc. followed a disappointing deliveries report last week by cutting more sales positions across the country, as the electric-car maker continues to pare personnel and shift its ordering process online.
The company dismissed several dozen sales team members on Thursday in Chicago; Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Tampa, Fla., according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the details were private. Tesla confirmed the cuts but declined to discuss specifics including the number of personnel affected.
The latest round of staff reductions is part of the retail retrenchment Tesla announced in February. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has said the decision to close some showrooms and embrace an online-only ordering model is designed to save money as the company ramps up production of cheaper Model 3 sedans and prepares to launch new models including the Model Y crossover next year.
The cuts made last week affected teams known internally as "inside sales," which were tasked with reaching out to potential customers and inviting them to test-drive cars, the people said. After the retail strategy revamp, these employees were reassigned to tasks such as taking inbound calls, helping with deliveries and even washing and detailing vehicles, the people said.
-- Bloomberg News
Target's Shipt to work with CVS Health
Target's same-day delivery company Shipt is pushing further into the pharmacy space, announcing it now will work with CVS Health to deliver prescriptions within hours at most of its drugstores nationwide.
Shipt, based in Birmingham, Ala., got its start as a mobile app focused on grocery delivery, which remains its core business. This is its first foray into pharmacy.
Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS has been toying with same-day delivery for more than a year in select markets. It now offers home delivery in a day or two at all of its 10,000 stores.
Customers pay $7.99 for CVS delivery service, which also includes a range of other health items, including diapers and cold medicine. One- or two-day delivery costs $4.99.
An annual subscription to Shipt costs $99 and allows members to get same-day delivery service of more than 55,000 items from Target.
Target purchased Shipt in 2017 for $550 million in a competitive move to continue fortifying its delivery offerings against Amazon.
-- Tribune News Service
Buyer is found for Gizmodo, The Onion
MIAMI -- The Spanish-language TV giant has found a buyer for Gizmodo Media Group (GMG), a suite of English-language websites that include The AV Club, Jezebel and The Root, along with its majority stake in the humor website The Onion.
The assets were put on the market in July 2018 as part of Univision's refocus on its traditional U.S. Hispanic viewers.
The buyer was Great Hill Partners, a private-equity firm based in Boston. Details of the transaction, including the sales price, were not disclosed.
Univision acquired a majority stake in The Onion in 2016 and paid $135 million for Gizmodo Media to launch Fusion Media Group, a multiplatform, bilingual endeavor intended to attract U.S. millennials through a combination of hard news, political coverage and entertainment.
But the ambitious experiment fizzled, resulting in layoffs and the cancellation of an initial public offering Univision had been planning for years. Univision's TV studios are based in Doral, Fla.
"Today's announcement is the culmination of a very thorough process, as part of Univision's broader strategic realignment and return to its core strengths in Hispanic media and marketing," said Vince Sadusky, chief executive officer of Univision, in a statement.
-- Tribune News Service
Business on 04/09/2019