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Guess CAL & UAL are already in bed together

So now we know where CAL picked up its newest Heathrow slot.

Continental closes Gatwick operation

By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent
Financial Times
Tuesday Sep 9 2008 13:40

Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL) , one of the leading US carriers, is abandoning its long-standing base at Gatwick airport in order to concentrate its London operations at Heathrow.

It said on Tuesday it was dropping its flights to Gatwick from its US hubs at New York Newark with two daily services and Houston with one daily service.

It is adding one more daily flight between Heathrow and Newark increasing the service to three a day in order to improve its competitiveness against the leading carriers on the London-New York route, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines.

It also operates twice daily flights between Heathrow and Houston.
Continental is the US carrier that has taken most advantage of the opening of Heathrow to full competition from all US and European airlines since the end of March, when the "open skies" treaty between the US and European Union came into force liberalising transatlantic aviation.

It set a record for Heathrow slot prices in 2007 when it paid $209m for four pairs of take-off and landing slots to start twice-daily services from Houston and New York Newark. It acquired two slot pairs from GB Airways, one from Air France and one from Alitalia.

It is leasing its fifth slot pair at Heathrow from United Airlines for the additional New York service, which will begin on October 25.

Jim Compton, Continental's executive vice-president marketing, said: "Our focus on Heathrow is a response to the changing realities of the marketplace. 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," he said.

The airline said 44 jobs would be eliminated at Gatwick as a result of the move.

The US carrier operates to more destinations in the UK from New York than any other airline with services to Heathrow, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester.

American Airlines also closed its Gatwick base this year as part of the move to consolidate its London operations at Heathrow tranferring its flights to Dallas Fort Worth and Raleigh Durham.

Getting into bed with United with current United management is like getting into bed with the girl at the bar that has the drug-resistant strain of chlamydia.

Sad to see what's happened to UAL. Heathrow slots are the best thing out there (Just ask CO, who payed out the nose for them. Or United, who got theirs from Pan Am, signaling the death knell of the once great "Clipper"). United leasing them to a competitor seems asinine - why lease a route between the largest air travel market in the world and the gateway airport to the rest of the world (AA is even rumored to break even on it's RDU-LHR flight w/ just premium passengers and cargo, the economy is all gravy!) Then again, that seems to be SOP for UA these days, unfortunately.

Unless UAL and CAL know something we don't about their future plans together...

Quote:

Originally Posted by beeker (Post 459714)

No more Cleveland to gatwick?

CLE-LGW is seasonal service anyway from late May to late September. In other stories I saw that CAL was ending "year-round service" to LGW. Could mean that CLE-LGW will be back next summer as usual. They would only have to special assign gate agents up to LGW for the one daily flight OR they could contract with another company to provide ground handling. Who knows?

Quote:

Originally Posted by EWRflyr (Post 459692)

Its all going to be one in just a matter of time...it won't matter.

By summer next year, UAL and CAL will have announced a merger. I have been saying it for some time. It just makes way too much sense.

I hope not. Code share is enough for me. I don't want to look for another job next year.

If UAL and CAL merged, I hope many of the UAL guys get the clickers back out. It'd help empower the younger/junior CO pilots too, which would be good for unity across the seniority list. Nothing liked getting reminded of your past by your FO's for the rest of your career to drive you to leave early.

The UAL pilot group would be a great addition to CAL's (if the 2 sides could ever agree on an integration, that is). UAL's route structure would be good too - they got many of Pan Am's desirable route authorities, and of course UAL's history goes back to Boeing. With CO's 'most international destinations' it could work. UAL's management would be what'd I'd really worry about. The 'midas touch' isn't something they have much experience with.