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 BEGINS NONSTOP SERVICE ON FIVE NEW DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL ROUTES sheds last to become an all-jet carrier

HOUSTON, Dec. 11, 2002 – (NYSE:CAL) today announced it is inaugurating service on five new routes, effective Dec. 12:

Destination Hub Daily Roundtrips 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 ERJ-145XR regional jets, a 50-seat aircraft with a range of more than 1,500 miles.

The also announced that Continental Express will retire its last eight 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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