Cost of passport going upStarting Tuesday, a...

Cost of passport going up

Starting Tuesday, a U.S. passport will cost $12 more.

Fees for a new passport will total $97 for adults and $82 for children younger than 16. Renewals will cost $67.

The additional fees will be used partly to finance a high-tech redesign of the document, according to Angela Aggeler, spokeswoman for the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs.

The new passports, to be introduced later this year, will add security features, such as digital images of the holder’s face and computer chips with information that can be read using radio frequency identification technology. The fee increase also will cover the cost of upgrading the mailing of passports, from first class to priority, Aggeler said.

Information: www.travel.state.gov.

Quick alert to low fares on Southwest

Southwest Airlines last week began offering short-term fare sales to online customers.

The low-cost carrier has long e-mailed weekly “Click ‘n’ Save” specials to subscribers. The new program, called Ding!, can be downloaded by registered users onto their computers and will alert them to fare sales that may last just hours. Registration is free; www.southwest.com/ding.

New bones

to pick in

Kansas City

Visitors to Kansas City will be able to watch scientists assemble and prepare dinosaur bones for display at Dino Lab, opening March 16 at the Missouri city’s Union Station.

The 1,700-square-foot glass-enclosed laboratory is in Science City, a museum that opened in 1999.

The first project for paleontologist Matt Christopher and volunteers is assembling Lyle, a 65-foot-long camarasaurus dug up in northeastern Wyoming by University of Kansas staff. Visitors can pick up a “bone phone” to ask Christopher questions, assemble models of dinosaurs and view fossils under microscopes.

Admission to Science City, including Dino Lab, is $8.95 for adults and $6.95 for children ages 4 to 12. Hours vary. (816) 460-2020, www.sciencecity.com.

Lighters

will be barred

from flights

Starting April 14, butane lighters will be banned from airline flights, more than three years after Richard C. Reid unsuccessfully tried to ignite explosives in his shoes aboard an American Airlines plane.

The new rule will apply to passengers and their carry-on bags; lighters are already banned in checked baggage. Passengers can carry up to four books of matches on planes, said Nico Melendez, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

Bloomberg News

JetBlue to fly

between JFK

and Burbank

JetBlue Airways in May will begin its first flights out of Burbank, giving Bob Hope Airport its only nonstops to New York.

The low-cost carrier, which already flies to New York’s JFK Airport from Long Beach and Ontario, will begin three daily Burbank-JFK nonstops May 24.

Introductory one-way fares, which must be booked by March 17 for travel through June 16, start at $99. Regular one-way fares are expected to be from $124 to $299.

-- Compiled by

Jane Engle