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According to reports, airlines routinely overbook their flights leading inconvenience to passengers On April 9, a passenger was forcibly removed from a  United Airlines  flight from Chicago O’Hare to Louisville after the carrier was unable to find volunteers to accommodate four of its employees on standby. Dramatic videos of the incident have gone viral on YouTube and social networks, and I reckon the resulting cost of this PR disaster will likely make United’s CEO wish he had sent in a private jet to ferry those employees to Louisville (which the airline could easily have afforded, given its net income of US$2.3 billion in 2016). ALSO READ:  United shares fall after worldwide backlash over dragged passenger Many articles have reported that airlines routinely overbook their flights, and sometimes passengers have to accept (voluntarily or not) the inconvenience of getting to their destination later than planned. As an airline economist, I do not recall, howev...

Wal-Mart buying Jet.com to lift online sales, battle Amazon Wal-Mart Stores Inc, vying to better challenge Inc, will pay about $3 billion for internet retailer Jet.com   and its innovative pricing software in the largest-ever deal for an   e-commerce start-up. The deal disclosed on Monday follows a five-year e-commerce acquisition spree in which Wal-Mart , the world's biggest traditional retailer, has already bought 15 start-ups, seeking the talent and technology needed to make it a dominant player online and narrow the massive gap with market leader   Amazon . Wal-Mart's online division has underperformed against Amazon, posting its slowest growth in a year in the first quarter as it struggled to gain traction with consumers, especially millennials. Jet.com   was launched by internet entrepreneur Marc Lore in July 2015 and includes software that can offer a customer lower prices as they add items to their shopping cart. Wal-Mart has said it would integra...