The Triangle's last Borders bookstore is finishing its liquidation sale and is scheduled to close for good on Monday.

The final days at the store on Six Forks Road in North Raleigh will feature discounts of up to 90 percent on all remaining merchandise and store fixtures. All sales are final.

All 359 Borders remaining nationwide are scheduled to close by mid-September. The chain fell victim to weaker consumer spending, and increasing competition from Amazon, Walmart and other powerful rivals.

Borders closed its five other Triangle stores earlier this year after filing for bankruptcy. Another store at Raleigh-Durham International Airport closed recently after its liquidation sale.

RDU officials are still working to find a new tenant for that spot in Terminal 2.

The closures leave large empty spaces across the Triangle for retail landlords to refill during an economic slump.

The last Borders in this region, in the Six Forks Station Shopping Center, is 27,000 square feet. The shopping center's property manager didn't return calls seeking comment.

The massive makeover of Raleigh-Durham International Airport's Terminal 1 will cost more than previous projections.

RDU officials on Thursday approved spending $5 million more on a new commercial curb and exterior painting, bringing the total cost of the project to $65 million.

AirTran and JetBlue recently moved out of the terminal, in preparation for construction to begin next year. A rebuilt Terminal 1 is expected to reopen in 2014 with modern amenities such as a new bag handling system and glass elevators.

Officials also announced that RDU director John Brantley, who had been scheduled to retire July 31, will stay on through the fall. The RDU board asked Brantley to remain until a successor can be found.

The Triangle's last two Borders bookstores will start liquidation sales Friday morning, with discounts up to 40 percent off.

The deals will include all merchandise, including books, calendars, puzzles, CDs, DVDs and more. Borders also will sell store fixtures such as lights, shelves and chairs. The discounts are expected to increase over coming weeks to clear out as much as possible.

There is a large Borders in the Six Forks Station Shopping Center in North Raleigh, and a much smaller one available only to ticketed passengers at Raleigh-Durham International Airport's Terminal 2.

The Borders bookstore at Raleigh-Durham International Airport will begin a liquidation sale in the next few days and airport officials are beginning the search for a replacement tenant.

The bankrupt book seller announced Monday that it will ask a judge to approve liquidation sales at its 399 remaining stores on Thursday, after failing to find a buyer.

"This has happened very quickly, so we have not had an opportunity to speak to interested tenants," said RDU spokeswoman Mindy Hamlin. "However, we anticipate that there will be other concepts that will be interested in leasing that space very quickly. It is located in a prime location and RDU’s concession program is very popular with tenants and customers."

The preference will be to find another bookstore to fill the spot, she added.

Assuming the recession hasn't wiped out your vacation plans, here's some good news: Soaking up the sun or gambling in the Bahamas will soon get a little easier.

Vision Airlines plans to begin direct flights between Raleigh-Durham International Airport and Grand Bahama Island on Nov. 4. The flights will start at $99 each way and run on Mondays and Fridays.

It's the first commercial service for Vision at RDU, although the company has offered charter flights at the airport since 2008. The new flights are part of a broader expansion by Vision in other markets.

"There is definitely potential to add more flights to RDU," said Vision spokeswoman Gini Strobel. "We are sure the flights to Grand Bahama Island will be successful, and we hope to consider more routes for RDU in the future."

Air travelers in eastern counties trying to reach the Windy City have a new choice for nonstop flights.

American Eagle, the regional sister of American Airlines, has started two daily flights between Wilmington International Airport and Chicago O'Hare.

The airline expects to draw business and leisure travelers, and the new service could create some competition for Raleigh-Durham International Airport among passengers in Eastern counties.

"There is plenty of demand in the Research Triangle region and eastern North Carolina to support additional service to Chicago," said RDU spokeswoman Mindy Hamlin.

Sky -- the Delta Air Lines in-flight magazine -- rounds up the usual suspects for a flattering 36-page (not 45-, as local boosters had hoped) profile of the Triangle.

It's part of the July magazine issue (which has somebody named Ralph Lauren on the cover and the Triangle on p. 93). It won't show up in your Delta passenger cabin until July 1. Advance copies were released at a media event Friday at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (in the same Terminal 2 where Delta once announced thrilling plans, later canceled, for an RDU-to-Paris flight).

There is a recap of the history of Research Triangle Park and the three universities that founded it, plus a respectful nod to N.C. Central University too. There are big blurbs of pride from

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Southwest Airlines, the busiest carrier at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, is running a fare sale tied to its 40th anniversary.

Tickets start at $40 each way for flights up to 450 miles. Flights of 451 to 1,250 miles are $80 one-way, and 1,251 miles or more are $120 one-way. The sale ends Thursday at midnight and tickets are good for travel between Aug. 23 and Nov. 16.

There are other catches, including a limited number of tickets available at the sale prices and blackout dates around Labor Day and Columbus Day. Oh, and taxes and fees aren't included.

But still, given the recent surge in ticket prices as oil prices spiked, the sale is likely to attract travelers.

Tom Parsons, CEO of Bestfares.com, told USA Today that the anniversary promotion is the "biggest airfare sale of 2011."

"This is the first time that I can remember in my 30 years of tracking airfares that I have seen airfares from over 100 U.S. cities as low as $40 one-way," Parsons said.

The Borders bookstore at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, which was spared when the bankrupt chain closed other local stores, has dodged another bullet.

Borders Group on Thursday asked a bankruptcy court for permission to close 51 additional stores. The RDU store was on that list, but late Thursday night, Borders spokeswoman Mary Davis said that the location is no longer in jeopardy because RDU agreed to extend a lease-negotiation period.

She declined to provide further details.

"The caveat to that is we can never guarantee a store will remain open indefinitely, but the landlord agreed to the lease extension," Davis wrote in an e-mail.

There was some delay in receiving paperwork from Borders, but RDU agreed to give Borders more time to decide whether to accept or reject the lease, which runs through 2015, said RDU spokesman Andrew Sawyer.

The Borders in RDU's Terminal 2 opened in 2008 and has been one of the most successful retail spots at the airport, Sawyer said.

Gas prices are falling as we head toward the first big travel weekend of summer, and the AAA Carolinas motor club says more North Carolinians are planning road trips for the Memorial Day holiday.

If you're driving south this weekend, you might want to tank up in South Carolina, where the state average price of $3.573 is the nation's lowest, according to the Oil Price Information Service.

Triangle drivers are paying an average $3.705 a gallon for self-service regular. That's down a dime in just the past week, but nearly a dollar more than we paid a year ago.

Why is our gas more expensive than South Carolina's? Most of the difference is in taxes.  North Carolina adds 32.8 cents in tax and inspection fees to the price of each gallon (only 12 states have higher gas taxes).  South Carolina's gas tax is only 16.8 cents, lower than all but three states' rates, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

AAA cites the recent gas price drop, and an improvement in unemployment numbers, in its prediction that 865,000 North Carolinians will travel this weekend, mostly by car -- a 3 percent increase over last year's Memorial Day numbers. ... [MORE]