In Brief

Tropicana Entertainment
chief announces resignation

Tropicana Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Scott Butera has resigned to accept a similar role with another gaming company, the casino operator announced in a statement Thursday.

Butera is also leaving his position with Tropicana's board of directors.

Las Vegas-based Tropicana Entertainment, whose chairman is corporate raider Carl Icahn, operates nine casinos in Nevada, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Jersey. The company is not affiliated with the Tropicana Las Vegas.

In Nevada, the company owns the Tropicana Laughlin and River Palms in Laughlin and the MontBleu in Lake Tahoe. The company also owns the Tropicana Atlantic City.

"I appreciate all of Scott's efforts in managing the company's successful restructuring and emergence from bankruptcy," Icahn said.

No replacement for Butera was named. He will continue in his current positions for a transition period and until a replacement is hired.

Butera did not reveal his new position.

Allegiant Air passenger count, load factor rise in October

The brisk growth in flying continued at Allegiant Air, but will slow considerably in the coming months.

During October, the number of flights at the Las Vegas-based airline rose 19.4 percent to 2,905 and the number of passengers rose 20 percent to 386,000 compared with the same month a year earlier. As a result, the load factor, the airline industry term for occupancy rate, rose a fraction of a point to 90.1 percent.

Allegiant estimated that revenue for each seat mile rose about 10 percent in October, an improvement from the 2.1 percent decline in September.

When Allegiant Travel Co., the parent of Allegiant Air, reported second-quarter earnings Oct. 27, company executives said they had overestimated the strength of the economy when setting route schedules earlier this year. As a result, the expanded number of flights could not be sold at prices they'd hoped to receive.

NEW YORK

Retailers' gains muted in October new report shows

Shoppers took a breather in October.

The International Council of Shopping Centers index measuring revenue at stores open at least a year showed a 1.6 percent increase in October, the weakest performance since April's 0.8 percent increase.

October's figure represented a slowdown from September, when it rose 2.6 percent. It's also below the average pace of 3.2 percent since the start of retailers' fiscal year, which begins in February.

WASHINGTON

Thirty-year mortgage rates rise to 4.24 percent in week

Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages edged up this week to an average of 4.24 percent, still close to their lowest level in decades.

The average rate for 30-year fixed loans rose from 4.23 percent the previous week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. It was the third weekly increase in a row.

The average rate on 15-year fixed loans fell to 3.63 percent this week from 3.66 percent a week earlier.