Bloomberg Alaska Air Group Inc. is close to buying Virgin America Inc., the carrier backed by billionaire Richard Branson, according to people with knowledge of the matter. While negotiations are advanced, the deal could still fall apart and a last-minute bid from JetBlue Airways Corp. may be possible, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details ...

NEWARK / AP The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced it’s easing limits on the number of hourly flights at Newark Liberty International Airport, and the airport’s operator said that should lead to greater competition and lower airfares. The limits at Newark Liberty, which serves the New York City region and is one of the busiest airports in the nation, ...

BERLIN / Reuters Dutch carrier KLM has launched the first in a series of 80 flights from Oslo to Amsterdam using a biofuels blend to power an Embraer E190 jet, in a boost for the biofuels industry that has been held back by weak oil prices. The flights will run over a period of five to six weeks and use ...

Bloomberg Not every milestone is worth celebrating. For the first time ever — or at least since the company went public some 45 years ago — Walmart’s revenues shrank from the year before, according to its recently released annual financial filing. Walmart is clearly having trouble adapting its gigantic stores to the internet age. To be sure, it is a ...

FRANKFURT / Reuters Amazon is in talks with a consortium of German carmakers about taking a stake in high-definition digital mapping company HERE, two auto industry sources familiar with the matter said. Last August, BMW, Audi and Mercedes agreed to pay 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) to buy Nokia’s mapping business as part of plans to develop self-driving cars. Since ...

Beijing / AP Stuffed into a tiny room off an alleyway are items that Wang Jinming readily admits were put out with the garbage: Paper string, a needle holder, a metal pancake maker built for thrusting into a fire. “These objects all look quite old and shabby,” he said. “But they record real history.” Wang’s Beijing Old Items Exhibition in ...

St Albans / AFP Once a daily sight on every British street, a dwindling but resilient band of milkmen still go out at the crack of dawn to deliver bottles of fresh milk to the nation’s doorsteps. The overwhelming majority of milk used to be sold at the front door until the supermarket revolution all but wiped out this very ...

Sunaina Rana / EMIRATES BUSINESS Help AG is a strategic information security consulting company, founded in Germany in 1995. Since its establishment in the Middle East in 2004, Help AG has maintained a sole focus on advanced IT security services and solutions, laying specific importance to three pillars — application security, understanding of the security impact of the application and ...

Our Correspondent / Emirates Business Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. became the first Japanese car manufacturer to establish a regional Middle East headquarters in June 1994. Nissan’s relationship with the Middle East goes back to 1957 when the first Nissan vehicles were delivered to Saudi Arabia. Nissan has since grown into one of the most recognised automotive brands in the Middle ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Senaat General Holding Corporation (Senaat), a leading industrial holding company in Abu Dhabi, recorded a strong performance for the year, registering revenues of approximately AED 14.04 billion for FY 2015, a 5 per cent increase from AED 13.42 billion in revenues achieved in FY 2014. The increase in revenues reflects a stronger commercial performance across the ...