Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 21, 1994                   TAG: 9404210234
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

A brutal fare war and winter weather to match dragged USAir Group Inc. to a $215.9 million loss in the first quarter.

The airline company said as much as $50 million of the deficit, which was expected, resulted from weather-related flight delays and cancellations.

Much of the rest came from the need to match Southwest and Continental airlines' bargain fares in key East Coast markets. A strong increase in passenger traffic wasn't enough to offset the price cuts.

USAir lost $121.7 million in last year's first quarter. That included a $43.7 million one-time writedown for an accounting change.

USAir has not made a quarterly profit without one-time gains since merging with Piedmont Aviation in 1989.

Also Wednesday, American Airlines parent AMR Corp. said it reduced its first-quarter loss after preferred dividends to $23 million, from $32 million a year ago. It also blamed bad weather and fare cutting for its loss, which was smaller than many Wall Street analysts expected. American credited the improvement to cost reductions and restructuring in its route system.

- Knight-Ridder/Tribune

Fla. tourism goes on America Online

ORLANDO, Fla. - The Orlando Sentinel and America Online Inc. on Wednesday announced an agreement to launch a new travel and tourism service, to be called Destination Florida, available to personal computer users.

The interactive service is to make its debut this summer with information about Central Florida hotels, attractions and events.

Later in the year, the Sentinel plans to offer news stories and classified advertising from the newspaper via America Online. In early 1995, the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel also plans to offer its stories through the service.

Both papers are owned by Tribune Co., which in 1992 launched Chicago Online, an electronic version of The Chicago Tribune, also via America Online.

- Orlando Sentinel

Ford to announce production revamp

TORONTO - Ford Motor Co. will detail sweeping changes today in the way it builds cars and trucks, creating five platform teams to oversee worldwide vehicle development.

Edward Hagenlocker, executive vice president of North American Automotive Operations, will oversee the new process as head of Ford Automotive Operations.

The changes, which Ford executives call a ``quantum leap'' in preparing the company for the next century, include a top-level personnel shuffle. No executives will be demoted, though several will report to new bosses.

The new global organization will focus more on function and product line than on geography. Several functions centralized by country will be gutted. There will be global coordination for every vehicle, determining where it should be designed, engineered and built and in what form and where it should be sold.

- Knight-Ridder/Tribune