Continental abandons Gatwick for Heathrow
[September 10th 2008]
Continental Airlines, the world’s fifth biggest airline, is to discontinue flights from Gatwick airport and add more flights from Heathrow airport.
Continental says it will launch a third non-stop daily flight from Heathrow to its base at New York Newark Liberty International airport from October 25th. But it acknowledges that the extra flight is subject to government and slot approval.
On the same day Continental will stop flying from Gatwick to both New York Newark and Houston. But the airline will continue to operate its existing two daily flights between Heathrow and Houston.
"Our focus on Heathrow is a response to the changing realities of the marketplace," explains Continental executive vice president marketing, Jim Compton. "Our customers have shown a clear preference for Heathrow, and our main competitors have focused their operations there. We regret the need to end year-round operations at Gatwick, but it is imperative that we remain competitive and continue to meet the needs of our customers."
Continental’s Heathrow flights will depart from Terminal 4 and will use a variety of Boeing jets – the 285 seat Boeing 777, the 174 seat Boeing 767 and the 175 seat Boeing 757.
In addition to flights from Heathrow, Continental will also continue to operate non-stop services from Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin and Shannon airports to New York Newark airport. Continental also operates a codeshare agreement with Virgin Atlantic Airways on several flights operated by Virgin from Heathrow and Gatwick.
Back in June Continental decided to cut its fleet by 67 and make 3,000 jobs redundant as the airline crisis started to bite. At the time the airline said that fuel prices were 75% higher than the year before and added that from September it would reduce its number of mainline departures by 16% and retire its least fuel efficient aircraft.
Continental was recently named the World’s Most Admired Airline for the fifth year running in the Fortune magazine list of World’s Most Admired Companies in 2008.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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