upgrade

In line with its recent upgrades, Virgin Australia (ASX:VBA) is now offering a 300-seat lounge. The new offering was unveiled on Monday, designed to offer a welcoming environment that will enable flyers to experience the best of the airline's products on the ground.

As part of a move to boost sales, Virgin Australia (ASX:VBA) streamlines its fare types to three. The new fares are called saver, flexi, and premium. For the first time, offers include food in the economy class.

Virgin Australia (ASX:VBA) may include A330 international services to boost its fleet. The airline has two A330s from Emirates to be used for its Sydney-Perth services. Two more aircraft will be acquired and upgraded to suit the airline's new business class.

Two planes will arrive by 2012-13 from Emirates. Chief executive John Borghetti said that with the current plans, it will be operated domestically.

Crown Casino (ASX:CWN) will spend $281 million to upgrade its business. This is on top of the $139 million that will be spent to upgrade the Crown Casino in Melbourne and Burswood Casino in Perth. This signals the company's confidence to attract high rollers to its VIP gambling service, and meet the the competition from new casinos in Singapore and Macau.

Telstra (ASX:TLS) unveils a $600 million upgrade to take a bite out of the nation's growing small business sector. The move will allow the company to offer a range of digital communication tools, and relinquish its status as the monopoly wholesale broadband provider.

Telstra will upgrade 1600 of its telephony exchanges over five years, enabling the company to provide high quality voice, fax, internet services and Eftpos with a single broadband connection.

According to the Australian Financial Review, Virgin Blue (ASX:VBA) has revealed new products and services amounting to $30 million. The low cost airline company plans to lure business travellers with its new amenities. This can be the start of a competition with Qantas who dominates the business class travel market.