Continental Airlines

Los Angeles International Airport will look a little different Tuesday as Alaska Airlines moves into a new space, and other airlines are switching terminals too. Alaska moves from Terminal 3 into a $271-million renovated space in Terminal 6 that includes a bigger lobby, more ticket kiosks and bag-drop areas, six international gates and electrical outlets on half of the seats in the gate area. ("No more sitting on dirty carpeting in the corner," the airline's statement promises.)

The latest step in the merger of two of the nation's largest airlines - United Air Lines and Continental Airlines - was plagued with glitches over the weekend, but most of the merged airline's flights were on schedule by Sunday. The merger announced in 2010 will form the largest airline in the nation, under the name United. Many Continental planes have yet to be repainted with the new United logo, but airline officials say the merger should be completed by the end of this year.

Another airline merger took a key step forward Thursday when the Federal Aviation Administration approved a certificate to allow Southwest Airlines and its subsidiary AirTran Airways to operate as one. The certificate is a crucial development in Southwest Airlines' $1.4-billion purchase of Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran, which was first announced in 2010. Since then, the two low-fare airlines have operated as separate carriers. Southwest officials say it will still take several years to repaint the exterior and remodel the interior cabins of AirTran's fleet of 138 jets before the two airlines can be completely integrated.

The latest federal statistics that measure the performance of the nation's airlines offered some good news for passengers and some bad. First the good news: In 2011, the airlines set records for the lowest rate of lost or mishandled baggage and the lowest rate of passengers bumped from overbooked flights. In 2011, the Transportation Department received 3.39 reports of mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers, the lowest rate since the agency began keeping track of lost bag reports in 1988.

Almost two months after its parent company filed for bankruptcy, American Airlines said it would eliminate its two to three daily flights in and out of Bob Hope Airport and end service to Burbank. It will also end direct flights to India. The financially troubled airline based in Fort Worth also announced Monday that it planned to lay off 150 workers throughout the company, primarily because of the loss of a United States Postal Service domestic mail contract and the closing of an equipment refurbishment shop in St. Louis.

Continental Airlines serves Angus cheeseburgers on its flights. United Air Lines doesn't even have the right ovens to heat them. United loads passengers in window seats first. Continental boards from the back. And United has a specific way to load dogs onto a plane -- always tail-first as they ride up the conveyor belt in carrier cages. On Continental, there's no strict policy. These are just three of the thousands of differences in the daily practices and policies of United and Continental airlines.

Continental Airlines flight 1403 made history when it landed at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on Monday, becoming the first revenue passenger trip in the U.S. powered by biofuel. The Boeing 737-800 burned a "green jet fuel" derived partially from genetically modified algae that feed on plant waste and produce oil. In completing the flight from Houston, parent company United Continental Holdings Inc. won by two days the competition to launch the first biofuel-powered air service in the U.S. On Wednesday, Alaska Airlines started 75 passenger flights along with its sister airline, Horizon Air, that will take place over the next few weeks using a biofuel blend made from recycled cooking oil. The 20% biofuel blend the planes will use will reduce carbon dioxide emissions 10%, Alaska Airlines officials said.

The U.S. airline industry has been on a hiring trend lately, but don't expect that to continue too much longer. For the ninth straight month, the airline industry added full-time employees in August, with employment numbers up 2.8% from the same month last year, according to the U.S. Transportation Department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In August, commercial passenger airlines employed 388,523 full-time workers in the U.S., up 10,688 workers from August 2010, according to the bureau.