Continental Airlines today reported 2006 net income of $343 million ($3.30 diluted earnings per share), a substantial improvement over the 2005 net loss of $68 million. 2006 net income includes a $92 million gain on the sale of a portion of the company's investment in Copa Airlines and a net charge from other special items of $53 million. Excluding special items, Continental's net income for the full year was $304 million ($2.95 diluted earnings per share), a substantial improvement over the 2005 net loss of $205 million excluding special items.

Due to worsening weather conditions in southeast Texas, Continental Airlines announced travel options for customers whose flight plans may be affected by the weather. Freezing precipitation is possible at Continental's Houston hub and at several other airports in the region overnight. This forecast and the resulting airport capacity reductions will force some cancellations of flights in and out of Bush Intercontinental Airport beginning Tuesday morning and possibly continuing through Wednesday.

PublicRoutes.com, a directions-based Web resource, today announced the expansion of its services to provide complete navigational resources for public transportation throughout the Chicago metropolitan area including: Lake, Cook, Will, Kane, Du Page and McHenry counties.

WhiteTie, an international-luxury concierge service, has launched an exclusive partnership with Northwest Airlines. WhiteTie is now the airline's official concierge service, providing the carrier's WorldPerks members the rare opportunity to purchase annual WhiteTie memberships at a special discounted rate.

The first Boeing Next-Generation 737-700ER (Extended Range) completed final assembly and rolled out of the Renton, Wash., manufacturing facility Jan. 2. The airplane receives a painted livery and goes through preflight testing before delivery to launch customer ANA (All Nippon Airways) in early 2007.

Pakistan International Airlines today took delivery of its first of three Boeing 777-300ERs on order. The newest member of PIA's long-haul, wide-body fleet departed Paine Field this morning en route to its new home base at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.

The Space Shuttle Discovery and its crew returned home Friday after a 13-day journey of more than 5.3 million miles in space. Discovery's STS-116 mission successfully reconfigured the International Space Station's power and cooling systems from a temporary setup to a permanent mode and added a new piece to the station's backbone.