Air travel is stabilizing after weeks of turmoil, as the FAA lifts flight restrictions at 40 major airports and restores thousands of flights that were cut during the shutdown. With operations normalizing heading into the holidays, airlines are shifting focus to reliability and recovery: Southwest is promoting system upgrades aimed at keeping disruptions at bay, Hawaiian is seeing a major bookings surge after Alaska restored its GDS presence, and American is rolling out a special retro livery as it gears up for its centennial.

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