Tagged: Business

On Thursday, US Airways CEO Doug Parker paid his first visit to Charlotte since the company announced plans to merge with American Airlines. 

The CEOs of American Airlines and US Airways defended their proposed merger Tuesday before a congressional anti-trust panel. Framing the creation of the world's largest airline as anything other than a monopolistic move requires careful wordsmithing.

To follow the argument from American Airlines CEO Tom Horton, you need to put aside conventional wisdom that having fewer companies in a marketplace leads to anti-competitive behavior.   

When it comes to start-up technology businesses, let’s just say Charlotte is no Silicon Valley. The local start-up scene has made some recent strides, though. Packard Place in Uptown has emerged as a hub for technology entrepreneurs and last year launched RevTech Labs, a program offering space and support for early-stage companies. The first group graduated five months ago, but they’ve struggled to attract local investors—a common complaint of Charlotte start-ups.

Concord city council members will vote this week on whether to give a local flight training center a $56,527  tax rebate over three years to expand. FlyRight is a training center located across the street from the Concord Regional Airport. The company plans to invest $5 million to build a second flight simulator. Concord City Manager Brian Hiatt says he hopes this will translate to more business for the airport.

The City of Charlotte has identified three finalists to breathe life into the now-vacant Eastland Mall and surrounding area.  

The Eastland Mall will not become a doll factory or a multi-generational healthy living community. Those are two of four proposals the city rejected in the first stage of selecting a suitor to remake the 80-acre site on Central Avenue in east Charlotte. But it's still not entirely clear what all three finalists to develop the property have in mind.