USA 3000 shutting down, to be gone in 2012

Apple Vacations, a company I and many others in the region followed for decades, is getting out of the airline business, planning to shut down its USA3000 affiliate company next year. The airline served its purpose, providing the air service needed for years to support Apple's vacation package business to Cancun and other sun-and-fun destinations. But as Apple founder John Mullen recounted to the trade paper Travel Weekly, times have changed and it makes more sense now to use aircraft chartered from established scheduled airlines. Apple hasn't shared much of this information with the Philadelphia-area media but has told the story to the trade press.