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Southwest Airlines and Continental Airlines , two of the largest U.S. carriers, posted higher quarterly earnings on Thursday as fuller planes and fare increases helped offset soaring fuel costs.

The earnings from Southwest and Continental are the latest sign that the U.S. airline industry’s recovery from a long slump remains on track despite a slowing U.S. economy.

Earlier this week, American Airlines parent AMR and Delta Air Lines posted better-than-expected earnings, benefiting from tighter cost controls and lower capacity in the United States.

source: Yahoo!

Continental Airlines today announced that interline eTicket capabilities have been implemented with DragonAir, its 100th eTicket partner, and that it is nearing its target to have all interline agreements eTicketable by the end of the year.

“‘While completing our 100th eTicket partnership is an important milestone, Continental is more focused on completing eTicket development with all of our interline partners,'” said Mark Erwin, senior vice president, Corporate Development. “‘With just over a dozen carriers remaining, Continental is committed to refining the customer’s experience with truly convenient, paperless travel on all itineraries.'”

Interline eTickets permit customers to fly and check baggage on Continental and other carriers on a single paperless eTicket itinerary.

Today, Continental passengers are already taking advantage of convenient eTickets, which reduce loss, theft and paperwork hassles for both the customer and the airline. Currently, over 99 percent of Continental’s customers systemwide travel on eTickets. eTickets are valid at all of the more than 280 airports served by Continental around the world.

source: CNN

American Airlines has been named Best North American Airline for the fifteenth consecutive year at the 2007 Business Traveller Awards. Business Traveller magazine presents its awards based on findings of its annual survey of its readers, who represent some of the world’s most discerning, affluent, and frequent international business travellers.

source: Boarding.no

Southwest Airlines Co. is on pace to unseat American Airlines this year as the world’s biggest airline, measured by passenger traffic.

The domestic-only discount carrier already eclipsed American’s combined domestic and international traffic during the first five months of 2007, according to a government tally released last week.

Southwest carried 40.3 million passengers on domestic routes between January and May, an increase of 4.2 percent from last year.

source: Courierpost Online

American Airlines is to go head-to-head with Eos and MAXjet at Stansted on the transatlantic route to New York JFK. The airline announced today that it will launch daily services from the Essex airport from 29 October and will add a second daily service from March 2008.

The new services will be operated by two-class Boeing 767-300 aircraft with 221 seats, including 30 in business class. The airline has recently revamped its business class to include lie-flat seats and audio and video on demand.

source: Times Online

Brazilian Airline Gol has just announced an agreement with US-based Continental Airlines whereby passengers flying with Continental will be able to purchase tickets on all routes served by Gol for connections in Brazil and South America. While the partnership covers all routes served by both airlines, only Continental will be able to sell tickets on Gol flights.

source: Brazzil Mag

During this week, American Airlines was subjected to a legal act by the widow of Taisuke Matsuo, the passenger that on April 2005 was found dead in the toilette of an airline’s plane departed from Tokyo only two hours after the landing.

The man, that apparently had a hearth attack during the first leg of the trip to Indianapolis, was found only two hours after the arrival to the final destination, the O’Hare international airport of Chicago.

source: Avionews

American Airlines, the world’s largest airline, says it can boost revenue by $94 million a year by tailoring some of its services to the growing number of women travelers.

The airline, a unit of AMR Corp., this week unveiled a version of its Web site for women (http://www.aa.com/women). The site aims to increase the number of women booking flights on American by 2 percent or more, said an AMR executive on Tuesday.

source: Reuters

American Airlines is adding flights to and from New York, raising the stakes in a showdown pitting the nation’s largest carrier against Continental Airlines Inc. and storm-battered JetBlue Airways Corp.

American said Thursday that it will begin nonstop service between New York and Las Vegas — a JetBlue stronghold — in September, and add a few flights to other cities, including San Francisco.

The appeal of New York is obvious. It is the nation’s largest city, a major tourist destination and a hub for international flights.

Reversing a decision made three weeks ago, American Airlines said Friday it would resume selling international and domestic first- and business-class tickets on Expedia.com.

The companies announced the decision in a news release but gave no explanation for the about-face.

American, the nation’s biggest airline, said Jan. 12 that it was halting the sale of the high-end seats on Expedia, although it continued to sell domestic coach tickets through the website. The companies sparred over which side had pulled out of the arrangement first.

source: USA Today