About
Continental Airlines (IATA: CO, ICAO: COA, and Callsign: Continental) (NYSE: CAL) is a certificated air carrier of the United States. Based in Houston, Texas, it is the fourth-largest airline in the U.S. and the eighth-largest in the world by revenue passenger miles. Continental's marketing slogan, since 1998, has been Work Hard, Fly Right.
Continental operates to destinations throughout the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Principal operations are from its three hubs at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (in Cleveland, Ohio), George Bush Intercontinental Airport (in Houston, Texas), and Newark Liberty International Airport (in Newark, New Jersey near New York City). With a relatively small number of focus cities, the airline is arguably the most concentrated of all 6 major U.S. carriers around the hub and spoke system of airline travel. An operating unit, Continental Micronesia, operates between Honolulu and central Pacific islands in Polynesia and Micronesia, and to Australia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia from its hub at Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport in Guam. (Continental Micronesia was a wholly owned subsidiary operation as an affiliate carrier until it was folded into the Continental mainline operation after the September 11, 2001 attacks.)
Continental Airlines is a minority owner of ExpressJet Airlines, which operates under the trade name Continental Express but is a separately managed and publicly-traded company. They are also a minority owner of Copa Airlines. Cape Air, Colgan Air, CommutAir, and Gulfstream International Airlines feed Continental's flights under the Continental Connection identity, as does Chautauqua Airlines under the Continental Express identity; however, Continental does not have any ownership interests in these companies.
Since September 2004, Continental has been a member of the SkyTeam Alliance, in which it participates with Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, and KLM. In addition to extensive code-share arrangements with SkyTeam partner airlines, the airline also code-shares with Amtrak rail services to some cities in the northeastern United States, and with SNCF French Rail to destinations in France.

History
Continental Airlines began service in 1934 as Varney Speed Lines, named after one of its initial owners, Walter T. Varney operating out of El Paso, TX and extending through Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, NM to Pueblo, CO. Varney Speed Lines changed its name to Continental on 1 July 1937 after a new owner Robert Six had taken a forty percent ownership with Varney's co-founder Louis Mueller. Six relocated the airline's headquarters to Stapleton Airport in Denver in October, 1937. Robert F. Six was one of the legendary patriarchs of U.S. aviation had a reputation as a scrappy, pugnacious and risk-taking executive who presided over the airline he largley forged in his image for more than 40 years.
By the end of the 1950's, Continental Airlines had seen a broad expansion of its routes. In 1957 it flew for the first time from Chicago to Los Angeles (both nonstop, and via Denver); and from Denver to Kansas City. Continental Airlines introduced turboprop service with the Vickers Viscount 800 Series, on the new medium length routes. Continental was also an early operator of the Boeing 707, taking delivery of its first 707s in 1959. Six, not being satisfied with jet service alone, introduced dramatic service innovations with Continental's 707 operations which were described as, "...nothing short of luxurious" by the Los Angeles Times, and, "...clearly, the finest in the airline industry" by the Chicago Tribune.
In 1981 Texas Air Corporation, an airline holding company controlled by U.S. aviation entrepreneur and raider Frank Lorenzo, acquired Continental after a contentious battle with Continental's management who were adamantly determined to resist Lorenzo. Continental's labor unions also fiercely resisted, fearing what they termed as, "Lorenzo's deregulation tactics." In the end, Texas Air Corp. prevailed. Frank Lorenzo became Continental's new Chairman and CEO. Texas International Airlines (TI), another Lorenzo holding, was merged into Continental Airlines in June 1982. TI ceased to exist and the "new Continental" relocated its headquarters to Texas Air's base in Houston, Texas. The merger resulted in a large expansion of Continental's hub at Houston Intercontinental Airport and its extensive routes to Mexico.
Frank Lorenzo took Continental into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 1983 after extensive negotiations with labor unions proved unsuccessful. Continental imposed a series of new labor agreement on its union workers, sharply reducing the airline's labor costs. This move made Continental vastly more competitive with the new airline startups then emerging and thriving in the southwestern U.S.
In October 1983, Texas Air Corp. made an offer for a Denver-based regional carrier, Frontier Airlines, opening a bidding war with People Express, which was headed by Lorenzo's former TI associate Don Burr. PeopleExpress paid a substantial premium for Frontier's high-cost operation. The acquisition, funded by debt, didn't seem to industry observers be rational from either the route integration or the operating philosophy points of view, but was in the opinion of most industry analysts rather an attempt by Burr to best his former boss, Frank Lorenzo
Continental embarked on an ambitious program to expand its international operations. In 1998 it launched flights to Ireland and Scotland, and in October 1998 the airline received its first Boeing 777 aircraft, allowing non-stop flights from Newark and Houston to Tokyo, Japan and from Newark to Tel Aviv, Israel. Continental in the same year launched partnerships with Northwest Airlines, Copa, Avant Airlines, Transbrasil, and Cape Air, and Continental and America West Airlines became the first two US airlines to launch interline electronic ticketing.
On February 22, 2005, the United States Department of Transportation announced that both Continental and American had won a fiercely-fought contest with Delta Air Lines to operate flights to China, with Continental offering a daily flight from Newark to Beijing beginning June 15, 2005. With the announcement, Continental, American, and United, will become the only three United States based airlines to offer non-stop flights between the United States and Mainland China. (Northwest Airlines operated non-stop flights to Beijing from Detroit from 1996 to 2002). Continental also flies non-stop from Newark to New Delhi but lost it's bid to start service between Newark and Shanghai over United Airlines. In 2005, Continental expanded service from Newark to six new European destinations including Belfast in Northern Ireland, Stockholm in Sweden, Oslo in Norway, Bristol in the United Kingdom, Edinburgh in Scotland, and Hamburg and Berlin in Germany. The route between Newark and Bristol is the first transatlantic scheduled service for Bristol which is made economically feasible due to use of smaller commercial jet aircraft, in this case, the Boeing 757. Continental will begin new non-stop service to Athens in June of 2007. With the recent announcement of daily nonstop service to Mumbai, Continental will have the most nonstop flights from the United States to India by any carrier. By May, 2006, Continental passed bankrupt Northwest Airlines to become the fourth-largest U.S. carrier, the first change in the top-five rankings since 2001.

Fleet
Recently, Continental Airlines announced that it will acquire 24 more Boeing Next-Generation 737 (737NG) aircraft, bringing the total number of Boeing 737NGs in its fleet to 213 when these aircraft, and pre-existing firm order 737NG aircraft, are delivered. On August 3, 2006, Continental converted an order for 12 Boeing 737NG's for an order for 737-900ER's, the first carrier in the Americas to operate the aircraft, with first delivery in 2008.
Continental Airlines was one of three carriers (with American Airlines and Delta Air Lines) to sign an exclusivity agreement with Boeing in the late 1990s. When Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas, the European Union forced Boeing to void the contracts. However, both parties have been adhering to the terms under a gentlemen's agreement.