Alitalia announced it has joined the Air France-KLM Group and Delta Air Lines as a member of the airline industry's leading trans-Atlantic joint venture.

American announced it has been awarded final approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to operate daily, year-round, nonstop service between New York John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Tokyo International Airport at Haneda.

American announced it will add Gainesville Regional Airport, FL to its route map on October 1. American's regional subsidiary American Eagle is scheduled to begin flying two daily round-trip flights to American's Miami, FL hub. American Eagle will use 64-seat Super ATR turboprops on the route.

Cathay Pacific Airways says it will begin offering wireless Internet and mobile phone service for passengers starting "early 2012." In partnership with Panasonic Avionics Corp., the Hong Kong-based carrier says it will deploy the technology on all Cathay Pacific and subsidiary Dragonair passenger aircraft. The airline didn't disclose pricing. The satellite-based technology will be accessible through passengers' devices and seatback screens, and will feature shopping websites, advertising, live television and pay-per-view programming.

American also announced that it would reinstate its seasonal service between Miami, FL and Treasure Cay in the Bahamas. The carrier will resume that route on November 18 with four weekly flights; all operated by American Eagle on Super ATR turboprops.

Continental announced new winter service between its Houston, TX hub and Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport, CO, beginning December 16. The service will operate through April 3, 2011.

Delta Air Lines announced it has received final approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to operate daily, year-round nonstop service between Tokyo International Airport, also known as Haneda Airport, and Detroit, MI and Los Angeles, CA. Schedules for Delta's new daily Haneda flights will be made available for sale in the next few weeks.

Frontier announced it will launch two new destinations out of its Milwaukee, WI hub. The new service includes twice-daily nonstop flights between Milwaukee and Hartford's Bradley International Airport, CT beginning September 27, and four weekly roundtrips to San Antonio, TX beginning November 19.

Hawaiian Airlines announced it will link Honolulu, HI to Tokyo. Hawaiian Airlines will initially serve Haneda with its Boeing 767 aircraft, which can seat up to 264 passengers. It will be eventually replaced by new 294-seat Airbus A330 aircraft for the route. The airlines first-ever commercial service to Japan, scheduled to begin October 31, will add about 100,000 new seats flown annually to Hawaii from its second-largest tourism market.

Lufthansa announced it has recently resumed flights from Munich to Erbil in northern Iraq, and starting September 30, will offer additional flights to the country with the launch of its Munich to Baghdad service. Passengers can choose from four weekly flights on a Boeing 737 that will be operated on behalf of Lufthansa by the Swiss aviation specialist PrivatAir.

Lufthansa announced effective November 3 it will begin service between Frankfurt and Pointe Noire in the Republic of Congo with convenient connections from North American gateways. Pending regulatory approval, the airline will offer five flights weekly using a PrivatAir-operated Boeing 737-800. With a stopover in Libreville, the new route also introduces nonstop service to this Gabon port, which is currently serviced enroute to Accra, Ghana.

Visitors to the Lufthansa lounges in the United States now have even more freedom in choosing how to spend their time. Together with partner T-Mobile, Lufthansa offers visitors free wireless Internet access until the end of 2010. Travelers can surf the web, send e-mail or use a VPN client to access their corporate networks. Access information for the T-Mobile hotspot is provided when they enter the lounge.

United announced its first service to Africa, with daily nonstop flights between Washington Dulles and Accra, Ghana. Passengers on the new route enjoy the comfort of Boeing 767 aircraft outfitted with our new international first and business class cabins, featuring true 180° flat bed seats, and personal 15" widescreen video entertainment centers. Passengers in Economy Plus will enjoy up to 5 extra inches of legroom over Economy. United offers convenient connections from Washington Dulles to Accra, Ghana from 75 destinations throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

United announced it has completed ahead of schedule a project to upgrade certain items on their domestic fleet cabins. The most visible change is that customers in United First ® can now enjoy new, upgraded leather seat covers on the A319, A320, B757, and domestic B767 and B777 airplanes. Those seats also feature new, more comfortable seat cushions, and the planes have new carpeting in high-traffic areas. These changes are contributing to significant improvements in customer ratings for cabin cleanliness, condition and workability

United is the first major U.S. airline to achieve 100 percent use of 2D bar code boarding passes. The shift from paper, magnetic stripe boarding passes paves the way to offer mobile check-in, which is currently available at nearly 30 airports. The new technology facilitates home printing of boarding passes for multi-segment journeys and even allows customers to use their mobile phones as a boarding pass.

Customers in United premium cabins on North American flights are now offered more of the food they want when they want it. Beginning this month United has improved the hot breakfast, increased the lunch portion and increased the protein ratio for dinner, all based on customer feedback. United has also added a snack basket for flights between one and two hours with no meal service, and on flights of just under four hours or more. Additionally, United continues to evolve the Choice Menu based on direct input from travelers. Customers are responding favorably to these changes aimed at ensuring customers enjoy a satisfying meal at consistent times on consistent routes.

WestJet announced that customers will soon be given the option of tagging their own bags, after a successful trial run at three Canadian airports. The company says customers like the time saved by not standing in line at a check-in counter. The tags are printed at the airport by customers who have checked in via cell-phones, the web or a kiosk. Passengers then take their bags to a drop-off location. The system has been used in Edmonton, Vancouver and Montreal since earlier this year.

Officials at the Philadelphia International airport announced that Wi-Fi is now complementary in the airport terminals. The airport is also running a series of summer entertainment programs and activities. Among them: Philadelphia's famous Mummers walking through the terminals; appearances by the local Please Touch Museum's Play Patrol; information sessions by the American Red Cross; demonstrations by artists whose work has been displayed at the airport; and pep rallies by local pro sports team mascots.