Northwest Airlines announced an expansion of its trans-Pacific route network with new daily nonstop service from Seattle to Beijing. Scheduled to begin March 1, 2009, Northwest’s new nonstop service will connect Beijing to Seattle and destinations throughout the United States via flights operated by Northwest and codeshare partners Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air.

Russia’s long-delayed test flight for its first new airliner since the fall of the Soviet Union will take place in the first half of May, a source in Russia’s state aircraft holding company said.

Grenadian Tourism Minister Claris Modeste-Curwen said recently that the “government and American Airlines has signed an agreement resulting in the airline returning to the island from November after a 10-year absence.” This development comes after months of negotiations between the two parties.

Lufthansa is expanding its route network from Milan and in future will offer passengers a much wider choice of flights from the North Italian city to European destinations.

As the pending Northwest-Delta merger threatens to marginalize Continental’s standing in the SkyTeam alliance, Continental is talking to American and British Airways about joining Oneworld.

Silverjet, the British exclusively business class airline, announced an update on its working capital position and that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with a UAE-based investor.