America West and US Airways have announced that the U.S. Justice Department completed its first round of approvals for the proposed merger of the two airlines. That's the latest legal hurdle cleared by the carriers on their road to becoming a single airline under the "America West" name.

AirTran has begun new daily nonstop flights between Richmond (Va.) and both Atlanta and Philadelphia. Nonstop flights between Richmond and Orlando will begin on Nov. 8.

Frontier Airlines added a second nonstop flight between Denver and Anchorage each day, with the service going until Jan. 3, 2006.