BRUSSELS – A major U.S. jet engine maker announced Thursday it will investigate the effects of volcanic ash on the engines of aircraft that have flown through the plume.

BRUSSELS – A major U.S. jet engine maker announced Thursday it will investigate the effects of volcanic ash on the engines of aircraft that have flown through the plume.

Honeywell Aerospace"s engines powered several of the planes sent up to collect scientific data after eruptions of the volcano in southern Iceland in April and May suspended European air travel. The planes, which accumulated dozens of hours of flying in the clouds, were operated by Germany"s national aeronautics research center DLR and by the British weather service.

The two TPE331 turboprops that powered the German Dornier 228 have been returned to Phoenix, Arizona, where they will be disassembled and analyzed in detail, said Ronald J. Rich, vice president of propulsion systems at Honeywell.

The Honeywell probe is believed to be the first such detailed analysis of engines affected by ash particles since the 5-day closure of European airspace last month.

The unprecedented closure of European airspace because of a volcano caused direct losses of more than a billion euros ($1.3 billion) to the airlines affected, and as much as 1.5 billion ($1.95 billion) to other businesses.

Few doubt that flying a plane directly into the plumes of a volcano could disable the aircraft. But it remains unclear whether the abrasive particles present a hazard to the jets outside the immediate area of the volcanic plume, once it is dispersed by high-altitude winds.

Airlines have blamed European regulators for overreacting to what they say was a manageable threat and have demanded that internationally recognized standards of ash contamination be set.

"The industry has little information on the affects of volcanic ash ingestion in turbine engines, and we hope the data we gain from this effort will help define operational impact to the engine and any damage to components," Rich said in a telephone interview.

"These volcanic eruptions give us an opportunity to systematically analyze volcanic ash impact to our engines, and this examination could yield a basis for future turbine engine performance and maintenance service data."

Over the past three decades, civil aviation has become increasingly aware of the dangers of flying through the microscopic fragments of rock and pumice that make up ash clouds.

Jet engines are highly complex machines designed to function in environments free of debris and corrosive gases, and the effects of volcanic ash have severely endangered safety on flights that directly overflew erupting volcanos.

Inside the engines, the particles stick to the hot core and form a glasslike coating, grinding up turbines, bearings, and other moving parts. This can lead to the immediate loss of thrust and eventually to engine failure.

International regulators such as the International Civil Aviation organization and the European Aviation Safety Agency have been trying to establish safe levels of particle contamination in the airspace.

Rich said he expected the probe to last at least a month. Results will be reported to the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency, he said.

"I just don"t know what we"re going to find," he said. "That"s why we"re interested in looking into these engines. We want to gain insight into what they are telling us."

WASHINGTON – Transforming the nation"s air traffic system by replacing World War II-era radar with 21st century GPS technology would be accelerated under a bill approved Monday by the Senate.

WASHINGTON – Transforming the nation"s air traffic system by replacing World War II-era radar with 21st century GPS technology would be accelerated under a bill approved Monday by the Senate.

The $34.5 billion bill funds the Federal Aviation Administration through Sept. 30, 2011. It also addresses a series of safety concerns raised by the crash of a regional airliner last year near Buffalo, N.Y., that killed 50 people.

The centerpiece of the bill calls for key elements of the FAA"s NextGen program to be in place at the busiest American airports by 2014. The system won"t be fully in place for noncommercial aircraft until after 2020.

The nation"s antiquated air traffic control system is a major source of airline delays.

The new system is projected to cost the FAA as much as $22 billion through 2025. Airlines would have to spend as much as $20 billion more to install equipment in their planes.

In the long term, the system is expected to save airlines money by allowing planes in crowded air corridors to take more direct routes and fly closer to each other without safety risks, reducing delays, saving energy and cutting down on pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions. Pilots will have real time information on the location of other aircraft.

The system is crucial to handling the expected growth in air traffic from about 700 million passengers in 2009 to the more than 1 billion annually by 2023.

The United States lags behind other nations in making the transition to the new technology, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., a key sponsor of the bill. Even Mongolia, he said, is further along.

"It"s embarrassing," said Rockefeller, the chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

The bill, passed by a 93-0 vote, contains a provision authorizing the FAA to make grants to airlines to help cover equipment costs. Some airline executives have said that as much as they want the new system, they can"t afford to put it in their planes.

Airlines have suffered repeated shocks over the past decade, including the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the SARS virus, volatile oil prices and the current economic downturn. They have shed more than 158,000 full-time jobs since employment peaked in 2001 and lost an estimated $30 billion to $60 billion in recent years.

Sponsors of the bill labored for a week to reach compromises with senators over amendments. Moments before passage of the bill, the Senate accepted without opposition a Rockefeller amendment containing some of those compromises.

Rockefeller"s staff declined to release a copy of the amendment. However, a list obtained by The Associated Press showed more than a dozen provisions on issues ranging from flights over the Grand Canyon to air quality in airline cabins.

Among the safety measures in the bill is a requirement that FAA update how many hours airlines can require pilots to work and how much rest they must get between work days. Airlines would be required to have remedial training programs for pilots who fail skills tests or make other errors, and programs that use electronic data recorded during flights to spot safety trends before they cause an accident.

The bill also:

_Raises the minimum number of hours of flying experience an airline co-pilot must have from 250 hours to 800.

_Bans pilots from using personal electronic devices in the cockpit, a response to an incident last October in which pilots of a Northwest Airlines plane flew more than 100 miles past their destination of Minneapolis while they were working on their laptops.

_Doubles to twice a year the frequency of FAA inspections of foreign aircraft repair and maintenance stations that work on U.S. planes.

_Contains a "passenger bill of rights" that would require airlines to provide food, water and other amenities to passengers kept waiting on tarmacs and give them the opportunity to deplane after a three-hour wait.

That would give legal status to Transportation Department rules adopted in December that also limited tarmac waits to three hours and fine airlines up to $27,500 per passenger for violations.

_Authorizes $8 billion over two years for airport improvement projects, which supporters said would generate 150,000 jobs.

The House passed a three-year FAA funding bill last year that includes several contentious labor provisions not part of the Senate bill. The House bill would also raise the passenger facility charge, which goes to airports to pay for improvements, from $4.50 per ticket to $7. Differences between the two bills remain to be worked out.

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Associated Press writer Jim Abrams contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON – Tourism spending rose at an annual rate of 3.9 percent during the first quarter, led by increased spending on hotels and other accommodations, according to a government report issued Tuesday.

WASHINGTON – Tourism spending rose at an annual rate of 3.9 percent during the first quarter, led by increased spending on hotels and other accommodations, according to a government report issued Tuesday.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis said the increase compared with a 1.5 percent drop during the fourth quarter of 2009.

Prices for travel and tourism rose at annual rates of 3.5 percent during the first quarter and 6.5 percent during the fourth quarter, the BEA said.

Spending on hotels and other accommodations rose at an annual rate of 11 percent in the first quarter, after falling at a rate of 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter. The BEA said accommodations were the largest contributor to the growth in travel and tourism spending.

Passenger air spending rose at an annual rate of 4.5 percent during the first quarter, after falling at a rate of 9.8 percent in the fourth quarter. Prices rose at a rate of 13.3 percent in the first quarter.

Airlines have said they are seeing business travelers return, allowing them to back away from fare sales they had used to fill seats with vacationers during the recession.

FRESNO, Calif. – Seemingly suspicious pieces of luggage delayed flights at two airports Tuesday, prompting evacuations in Minneapolis and closing a California airport where authorities discovered what turned out to be soft drink bottles filled with honey.

FRESNO, Calif. – Seemingly suspicious pieces of luggage delayed flights at two airports Tuesday, prompting evacuations in Minneapolis and closing a California airport where authorities discovered what turned out to be soft drink bottles filled with honey.

A passenger"s suitcase tested positive for TNT at Bakersfield"s Meadows Field during a routine swabbing of the bag"s exterior, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. When Transportation Security Administration officials opened the bag, they found bottles filled with an amber liquid, he said.

The bag"s owner, Francisco Ramirez, told TSA officers that the bottles were filled with honey, Youngblood said. Further testing confirmed that honey was the only substance present in the bottles, said FBI spokesman Steve Dupre. No traces of explosives were found.

"Why in this day and age would someone take a chance carrying honey in Gatorade bottles?" Youngblood said. "That itself is an alarm. It"s hard to understand."

At the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, a bomb-sniffing dog indicated there was something suspicious about a piece of luggage, causing authorities to call a bomb squad and clear parts of the airport for more than an hour.

But the bag was never put on a flight and nothing suspicious was found, officials said.

The piece of luggage was only a placeholder airline employees put on the luggage carousel to signal to other employees that all the bags have been unloaded from a flight, airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said. In airport jargon, it"s called a "last bag."

"It was kind of a beat-up old bag that was simply used as a marker," he said.

Investigators in California said Ramirez flew to Bakersfield Dec. 23 to spend Christmas with his sister and was returning Tuesday. The 31-year-old gardener from Milwaukee was not arrested and was cooperating with authorities, officials said.

When TSA agents opened one of the five bottles and tested the contents, the resulting fumes nauseated them, Youngblood said. Both were treated and released at a local hospital.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff"s Office bomb squad was performing further tests to determine why at least two positives were recorded for both TNT and the organic explosive acetone peroxide, or TATP.

Bakersfield is about 110 miles north of Los Angeles.

Investigators want to know whether any chemical Ramirez uses in his gardening work could have left traces of potential explosives. They will also run tests on the substance to see if the smoke beekeepers use to subdue the insects could have triggered a false positive test on honey.

All flights into and out of Meadows Field were canceled for much of Tuesday as authorities searched the terminal for other potential explosives.

The discovery came less than two weeks after a man was charged with trying to destroy a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit on Christmas Day. He is alleged to have smuggled an explosive device on board the aircraft and set if off, but the device sparked only a fire and not the intended explosion.

Airline security has been tightened since the arrest.

Hogan said any number of things could have caused the dog at the Minneapolis airport to react. "We"ll probably never know what it was," he said.

He said the dogs have been working more hours since the Detroit incident. However, he doubted overwork contributed to Tuesday"s false indication.

While the Minneapolis airport"s reaction annoyed some passengers, it didn"t bother Cindy Kangas, 49, of Braham in east-central Minnesota, who arrived at the airport after the incident and was waiting in a long line at the security checkpoint.

She didn"t think airport officials overreacted and instead showed they cared.

"For one thing, if it"s them or their families they"d want to make sure it was all checked out," she said.

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Associated Press writers Amy Forliti and Chris Williams in Minneapolis and Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee contributed to this report.

ATLANTA – Airlines have been tinkering with their frequent flier programs to spur loyalty. Increasingly they"re giving customers the option to buy more than plane tickets with their rewards, and that may offer more bang for your buck.

ATLANTA – Airlines have been tinkering with their frequent flier programs to spur loyalty. Increasingly they"re giving customers the option to buy more than plane tickets with their rewards, and that may offer more bang for your buck.

AirTran, Delta and United are among carriers that allow their frequent fliers to use their credits or miles to pay for hotel rooms, rental cars, meals at restaurants or electronics. Delta"s SkyMiles program alone has more than 70 million members.

The expanding programs are generally a win-win situation. By giving away fewer free tickets, airlines have a larger supply for paying customers, but perhaps more importantly giving customers more variety drives more loyalty to the airlines. And frequent fliers get to buy something that may offer more value than a plane ticket when you consider how long it took you, and how much you had to spend to earn the program rewards.

A standard domestic roundtrip coach ticket can cost at least 25,000 miles in many programs. One way to get that many miles is to buy tickets for eight roundtrip flights of 3,125 miles in length each (roughly the distance you would fly roundtrip between St. Louis and Los Angeles). Assuming you pay an average $250 per roundtrip flight, that would run you $2,000.

If you turned around and used the miles for a free ticket on a shorter flight that only cost $150, you are effectively getting a 7.5 percent return on the money you spent.

But instead, if you used the air miles for two free nights in a hotel that cost a total of $300, you would be getting a 15 percent return.

Not bad if you are looking to save money and stretch your frequent flier rewards.

Here"s a primer on what you can buy with your rewards on three major airlines and how much it will cost you.

AIRTRAN AIRWAYS

The discount carrier participates in a global points exchange called where AirTran flight credits can be traded for hotel rooms and other items.

Join for free and then start browsing the different categories of Points.com partners (hotels, retail, travel). You can initiate a trade by requesting the number of miles or points you want to get from another participating reward program in exchange for your AirTran flight credits. If you see a trade you like, you can accept it. Or move on and look for a better exchange.

Participating in such programs is one way several airlines are expanding how you can use your points, credits or miles.

On the points exchange site, you can also turn your miles into certificates accepted at more than 200 retailers and restaurants.

An example: On Points.com you can trade three AirTran flight credits for 2,000 Priority Club points. Priority Club is a hotel reward program. You can use those points toward stays at hotels including Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites. But, if you accept this trade, it also will cost you $87.

DELTA AIR LINES

The world"s biggest airline recently launched an online marketplace in which its frequent flier program members can redeem SkyMiles for hotel rooms, car rentals and merchandise.

On you can use miles to book hotel rooms and car rentals and buy appliances, luggage, handbags and jewelry. The marketplace offers more than 6,000 items. That"s far more than Delta frequent fliers have had access to in the past when newspaper and magazine subscriptions were popular non-travel options.

An example: Under the new marketplace program, an Apple iPod Nano will run you 29,000 miles.

UNITED AIRLINES

Hungry? You can eat for free instead of fly for free and maybe stretch your miles. United allows you to use your reward miles to purchase certificates to eat at numerous restaurants around the country.

Go to or the airline"s partner, .

You can redeem as many miles as you like for multiple Restaurant.com certificates. Pick your restaurant from over 13,000 choices nationwide. Some restaurants may restrict redemption to specific days or require a minimum purchase.

An example: For 2,000 United Mileage Plus miles, you get four $25 Restaurant.com dining certificates.

Some other helpful tips.

_Remember, sign up for an airline frequent flier program. It is free to join.

_Consider using your airline rewards for upgrades to first class or business class. That"s another way to get more bang for your buck, because buying a business class seat at the time of booking can cost you twice as much as a coach seat. But if you book a coach seat and upgrade the day of the flight using your reward points, miles or credits, you save a bundle.

_One unusual offer: For 100 AirTran frequent flier credits, the carrier will buy you a ticket anywhere in the world on any airline, with no restrictions besides the advance purchase requirement. So, if you want to travel at a peak time to Tahiti, AirTran will buy your ticket for you and you even earn the frequent flier miles on the carrier you choose for the flight.

BRUSSELS – Lufthansa and TAP Air Portugal moved closer Tuesday to facing strike action by their pilots" unions, as British Airways braced for the second work stoppage in just over a week by thousands of its cabin crew.

BRUSSELS – Lufthansa and TAP Air Portugal moved closer Tuesday to facing strike action by their pilots" unions, as British Airways braced for the second work stoppage in just over a week by thousands of its cabin crew.

If the wave of airline strikes spreads or continues into the summer, it could undermine the upcoming tourist season that nations in southern Europe — which have been hit the hardest by the financial crisis — are counting on to boost their recovery.

Portuguese Economy Minister Jose Vieira da Silva warned that a strike by TAP Air Portugal pilots would hurt the tourist industry badly.

"Our tourist sector is coming out of a very deep crisis. (This strike) is not good for it," da Silva said.

The underlying cause for the strikes are the financial difficulties faced by the industry and the cost-cutting measures airlines have had to resort to in an effort to maintain competitiveness.

In the late 1990s, European airlines invested heavily in new aircraft in order to stave off rapidly expanding competitors — such as Dubai-based Emirates or Etihad from neighboring Abu Dhabi — and to avoid being relegated to the position of second-rate aviation powers.

This was accompanied by a wave of acquisitions or mergers with other European carriers in an attempt to gain market share and squeeze remaining independents out of the market.

But the economic downturn and accompanying fall in passenger traffic, which has cut revenues by 10-15 percent across the continent, has left the carriers scrambling to stave off bankruptcy by cutting costs and slashing services.

"It"s an unusual situation and quite bizarre, but the industry is in its worst state ever," said John Strickland, director of JLS Consulting, a London-based aviation consultancy firm.

"We"re seeing legacy carriers really struggling to fight in a competitive environment because consumers want lower prices and the low-cost carriers are offering them," he said.

"All this is putting pressure on costs. And one of the ways they are coping is negotiating with their work forces not just about salaries, but about the ways of working, increased flexibility, and greater efficiency."

Meanwhile, air traffic controllers in France went on strike last month, disrupting flights and causing huge delays across western Europe. Controllers in debt-plagued Greece also walked off their jobs to protest against painful spending cuts.

Lufthansa, Europe"s largest airline, received more bad news Tuesday, when the annual congress of the 105,000-strong International Association of Airline Pilots Associations voted to back a work stoppage by the carrier"s pilots.

"We salute the exemplary approach of the members of (Lufthansa"s) Cockpit union who are demonstrating strong unity across company borders in their fight to preserve their prospects, jobs and adequate working conditions," said a statement by the umbrella group of the world"s pilots.

The airline"s pilots went out on strike last month, but the planned four-day walkout was cut short after a day with an agreement to resume negotiations.

The Cockpit union has called a walkout at all German locations from April 13-16. It said the dispute was about salary, working conditions and job security. The union said it was giving advance warning to avoid any disruption to customers during the Easter holiday and to get the airline"s management to return to the negotiating table.

Lufthansa countered that its latest offer to the Cockpit union was to address concerns over job security. Chief management negotiator Roland Busch said the offer was "appropriate to the situation of the company and the economic environment," and that Lufthansa needed to avoid cost increases in order to maintain its competitiveness.

The dispute also affects Lufthansa Cargo and its budget Germanwings subsidiary.

Meanwhile, in London, British Airways said it was working to get operations back to normal Tuesday following a three-day strike by cabin crew that the airline says cost it about 21 million pounds ($31.5 million).

The airline faces a second walkout this weekend — this time for four days beginning Saturday — by crews represented by the Unite union. No further negotiations have been announced.

What good are a million frequent flier miles if they expire before you can use them?

What good are a million frequent flier miles if they expire before you can use them?

All of the major airlines except Continental have slapped expiration dates on their frequent flier miles, generally one to two years. Activity on the accounts — like flights or credit card awards — will prevent expiration. But even frequent travelers can be surprised when miles expire on an airline they don"t often fly.

Some airlines, including Delta, show mileage expiration when you log into your frequent flier account on its website. Some don"t. So staying on top of all the relevant dates can be challenging.

The advantage of using software or a third-party website is that you can monitor multiple rewards accounts at one time. A few will send you an alert if your miles are close to expiring. And most let you track hotel and rental car rewards programs, too, all in one place.

The biggest and oldest of the sites is MileageManager. It has about 120,000 members, according to Randy Petersen, who runs parent company Frequent Flyer Services as well as InsideFlyer magazine.

Petersen said one advantage of having multiple accounts in one place is that after your trip, it"s easier to make sure you got credit for all of your spending. If you took a trip to Dallas, he said, "you will see your flight, your hotel — "hey, where"s my car rental?""

Here"s a rundown of what you"ll find on some of the more popular mile-tracking sites. All three will also track car rental and hotel programs. However, not every site tracks every provider"s program, so check to make sure the programs you use the most are available on the site:

• mileBlaster. Costs $6.99 per year. Available on the Web, as a widget for Windows or Mac computers, or as an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch and Nokia phones. You"ll have to pay twice if you want to use it on your phone as well as at . The service includes e-mail alerts that your miles will soon expire, and some versions allow tracking of accounts for multiple users. A status bar shows your progress toward your next award ticket on each airline.

• MileageManager. Costs $14.95 per year. Available at as well as travel organization website . (Expiration alerts at Tripit are part of the "pro" version, which costs $69 per year.) You can specify how far in advance you want to be notified about expiring miles. MileageManager requires separate accounts for each family member, so the bill could run up for someone who wants to manage several accounts. (The company says it"s looking at the possibility of multi-user accounts in the future.) The service will also monitor a flight you"re interested in and notify you if an award seat becomes available.

• Traxo. Free. This one is the newest of the bunch. Traxo aims to let travelers see both the balances in their loyalty programs, as well as information on upcoming trips. It also says it will notify you that you didn"t get credit on a recent trip, as well as notify you that there is a mileage promotion for a trip you just booked.

HOUSTON – Continental Airlines Inc. said Friday it has set up a program for its frequent flier members to donate reward miles to charitable groups involved in the relief effort in Haiti.

HOUSTON – Continental Airlines Inc. said Friday it has set up a program for its frequent flier members to donate reward miles to charitable groups involved in the relief effort in Haiti.

Members of the airline"s OnePass program can donate miles to the American Red Cross and AmeriCares.

To make a donation, OnePass members should visit the airline"s Web site.

Continental, based in Houston, also is waiving change fees and additional fare collections for certain tickets to the Dominican Republic.

Continental does not fly to Haiti but does serve three cities in the neighboring country of the Dominican Republic.

Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake Tuesday and as many as 50,000 are feared dead.

PORTLAND, Ore. – An Oregon man who FBI agents say was angling for frequent flier miles has made his first court appearance on a charge of interfering with a commercial jetliner crew by filling out a comment card that talked about crashing into the ocean.

PORTLAND, Ore. – An Oregon man who FBI agents say was angling for frequent flier miles has made his first court appearance on a charge of interfering with a commercial jetliner crew by filling out a comment card that talked about crashing into the ocean.

Federal authorities charged 56-year-old Joseph Hedlund Johnson of Salem after a Hawaiian Airlines jetliner turned back in midflight Wednesday to return to Portland — accompanied by two F-15 military jets.

The pilot said he was alarmed because Johnson wanted to be near his carry-on luggage and filled out a comment card that wondered "what if the plane ripped apart in mid-flight," an FBI affidavit said.

Johnson told an agent the card was intended as a joke and, because it was sealed, not to be read during the flight.

"He told me that he thought the card was going to be taken back to an office somewhere, opened, and everyone in the room would "get a laugh" from it, and that perhaps he"d even get some frequent flyer miles out of it," FBI agent Michael Torphy wrote in an affidavit.

Authorities said they found no link between Johnson and terrorists, nor any dangerous devices on him or in his luggage.

The concern over airline security has intensified since an attempt on Christmas Day to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet bound for Detroit. Citing that, the acting U.S. attorney for Oregon, Kent Robinson, said "everyone who flies should also know that communicating with a flight crew about crashing airplanes will not be viewed as a joke."

In a brief hearing Monday, Johnson got a public defender. He has not entered a plea. He is to be back in court next week.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis Hubel warned Johnson not to fail to show up when scheduled.

"You do have a record of not appearing when you are supposed to in court," Hubel told him. "You"re going to make your problem a lot bigger if you don"t appear."

Hubel didn"t elaborate. Public records show Johnson has a record of assault and theft convictions dating to 1995. Calls to authorities in Salem for details of his court record were not immediately returned.

The comment card also contained references to the 1960s TV sitcom "Gilligan"s Island," about a group of castaways on an island in the Pacific.

Reproduced in the affidavit, the card reads: "... I hope we don"t crash and burn or worse yet, landing in the ocean, living through it, only to be eaten by sharks, or worse yet, end up on someplace like gilligans Island, stranded, or worse yet, be eaten by a tribe of headhunters ... "

Johnson told the FBI he has hepatitis C and other diseases, is disabled and has only Social Security benefits for income.