Airline ticketing services fined

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators are going after online ticketing services that fail to tell customers booking a flight on a major airline that a leg of their trip will be operated by a separate regional carrier.

The Department of Transportation said Friday that five ticketing services -- Fareportal Inc., American Travel Solutions, AirGorilla, Wholesale Travel Center Inc. and Automobile Club of New York Inc. -- are being fined a combined $175,000 for failing to disclose such "code-sharing." Last month, two other services, Flythere4less.com and Airtrade International Inc., were fined a combined $90,000.

Code-sharing became an issue after a regional airliner crashed near Buffalo in 2009, killing 50 people. Passengers booked flights on Continental Airlines with the Buffalo leg described as "Continental Connection." The flight was actually operated by Colgan Air. -- AP