United Airlines

CHICAGO -- The United Airlines name is visible across the country this week, trumpeted as part of a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, seen on commercials and discussed on talk shows. It is all part of a publicity onslaught the airline is trying hard to avoid. United 93 debuts tomorrow in movie theaters across the country. It tells the story of one of the four airplanes hijacked the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Although the film has drawn harsh criticism from some who feel it reopens emotional wounds, United Airlines has worked to stay neutral, neither criticizing nor praising the film and its producers.

For all their horror, the images of Sept. 11, 2001, give at least some distance, taken as they were from the ground looking up at the smoldering towers, from across the Hudson, from too far away to look into the faces of those enduring unimaginable suffering. The recorded voices, however, are all in close-up. The strangeness of that day has faded and once-shocking photographs have grown familiar, but these voices on tape, these words in transcripts take us to places where the cameras never went.

The competition for airline passengers out west soon will benefit travelers at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport as both United Airlines and Southwest Airlines add service between Baltimore and Denver. United Airlines said it would add several flights from Denver International Airport, where it is the dominant carrier, including one to Baltimore in April. The news comes on the heels of Southwest Airlines' launch in Denver this year and subsequent announcement that it would add a daily flight to BWI next month.

NATIONAL Privacy at center of Web dispute By demanding a mountain of data from Google, the government hopes to create a small, model version of the Internet to test various types of pornography-filtering software, a spokesman for the Justice Department says. pg 1a GOP to campaign on security President Bush's top political adviser signals Republican plans to campaign aggressively on national security in the 2006 elections, accusing the Democrats of being wrong when it comes to defending the country.

CHICAGO -- Three years after United Airlines announced it was embarking on a period of "profound and agonizing change," the bankruptcy reorganization plan for the nation's No. 2 carrier won court approval yesterday. And it was agonizing: More than 25,000 workers lost jobs, those remaining suffered huge wage and benefit cuts and shareholders watched their stock become worthless in the longest and most expensive airline bankruptcy in history. Despite the pain, "I think there is a reason to feel good about this plan," U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Eugene R. Wedoff said in making his ruling.

Coffee? Soft drink? A pair of sunglasses or half-pound box of chocolates? Travelers aboard United Airlines' Ted flights have a new set of choices. And, just like in-flight meals, choosing one of these new items will require reaching for a wallet or purse. The airline has begun offering its self-described "boutique in the sky" on Ted, the offshoot of United that serves vacation destinations such as Orlando, Fla.; Las Vegas; and Phoenix. "It combines fun, in-flight entertainment and convenience - things that are all part of Ted," said United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski.

The future of thousands of traditional corporate retirement plans of 44 million workers and retirees is at financial risk. The entire system of 31,000 private-sector "defined benefit" plans that pay a fixed percentage of final salary as retirement pay and are insured by the government is in trouble. The federal government's pension insurance agency took over bankrupt United Airlines' huge pilot pension plan months ago. Before that, the government assumed the pension plans of other bankrupt airlines and steel companies.

The top airlines for wine (in business class), from Global Traveler magazine's annual taste test: 1. United Airlines 2. Cathay Pacific Airways 3. Qantas Airways 4. Austrian Airways 5. Asiana Airlines 6. Alitalia Airlines 7. Scandinavian Airlines 8. Icelandair 9. Aer Lingus 10. Continental Airlines

A federal bankruptcy judge gave United Airlines yesterday a Nov. 1 deadline to file a plan for exiting Chapter 11, and said if it fails to do so it risks losing control of its destiny. United has won 10 extensions of its exclusive right to determine its reorganization plan for leaving bankruptcy. "No further extensions will be granted in the absence of compelling and unforeseeable circumstances," Judge Eugene Wedoff said. Some of United's banking creditors want more say in the airline's business plan.

John Wraga doesn't own a single plane, but from his office at Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass., he is crafting a grand vision for the future of air travel: an all-first-class airline with a manicurist, exercise equipment and "everything you can think of onboard." Wraga is among a number of entrepreneurs who want to become airline magnates: Fourteen applicants - Wraga not included - are seeking certification from the U.S. Department of Transportation to start airlines. It couldn't be a worse time to get into the business, though.