News Release
Contact: Corporate Communications Houston: 713.324.5080 Email: [email protected] News archive: continental.com/company/news/ Address: P.O. Box 4607, Houston, TX 77210-4607
CONTINENTAL AIRLINES BEGINS NONSTOP SERVICE ON FIVE NEW DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL ROUTES Continental Express sheds last turboprop to become an all-jet carrier
HOUSTON, Dec. 11, 2002 – Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL) today announced it is inaugurating service on five new routes, effective Dec. 12:
Destination Hub Daily Roundtrips Aircraft Daytona Beach, Fla. New York 2 ERJ-145XR
Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica New York 1 737-800
Palm Springs, Calif. Houston 2 ERJ-145XR
Villahermosa, Mexico Houston 1 ERJ-145XR
West Palm Beach, Fla. Cleveland 1 737-300
Continental also will launch seasonal nonstop service tomorrow from its Houston hub at
Bush Intercontinental Airport to popular ski destinations, including Eagle, Colo. (Vail/Beaver
Creek/Aspen) and Hayden, Colo. (Steamboat Springs).
The nonstop flights to Daytona Beach, Palm Springs and Villahermosa are operated by
Continental Express with new, fast and quiet Embraer ERJ-145XR regional jets, a 50-seat aircraft with a range of more than 1,500 miles.
The airline also announced that Continental Express will retire its last eight turboprops and begin all-jet service tomorrow with an operating fleet of 184 Embraer regional jets.
- more - CONTINENTAL OPENS FIVE NONSTOP MARKETS/ PAGE 2
Turboprop service will be replaced by 37-seat and 50-seat regional jets at six Continental
Express destinations in Texas and Louisiana served from Continental’s Houston hub at Bush
Intercontinental Airport: Lake Charles, La.; College Station, Killeen, and Victoria, Texas;
Ellington Field in Houston; and Southeast Texas Regional Airport, serving the Beaumont-Port
Arthur area.
Continental Express operator ExpressJet Airlines has added 14 new extended-range
regional jets to its fleet since October. The new aircraft entered service on Nov. 1, when
Continental inaugurated nonstop flights between Liberty International and both Omaha, Neb.,
and Oklahoma City, and between Houston and Richmond, Va.
Continental Express, operated by ExpressJet Airlines, Inc., employs more than 5,500 people and provides Continental Airlines with all of its regional airline capacity at its hub airports in Houston, Cleveland and Newark. Continental Express offers advance seat assignments and OnePass frequent flyer miles, which can be redeemed anywhere in the world
Continental and its alliance carriers fly. ExpressJet Airlines is owned by ExpressJet Holdings,
Inc. (NYSE:XJT).
Continental Airlines is the world’s sixth-largest airline and has more than 2,100 daily departures. With 121 domestic and 90 international destinations, Continental has the broadest global route network of any U.S. airline, including extensive service throughout the Americas,
Europe and Asia. Continental has hubs serving New York, Houston, Cleveland and Guam, and carries approximately 45 million passengers per year on the newest jet fleet among major U.S. airlines. With 48,000 employees, Continental is one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For in
America.” Fortune ranked Continental the No. 2 Most Admired Global Airline and No. 30 Most
Admired Global Company in March 2002. For more company information, visit continental.com.
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