Continental Airlines document suggests huge cuts in Cleveland Hopkins flights | cleveland.com

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Ouch!! This sucks... We can't seem to escape the black hole of airline cuts.. First Comair and now this. Great.

Not sure why this was removed from the Regional forum...

"Also, the analysis suggests that flights on regional partners that serve Continental -- which today account for about four out of five departures -- would plunge from a daily average of 168 to 13."

Continental already came out with a statement today refuting this article. Seems the attorney for the plaintiff in a suit against Continental got hold of one of many pre merger announcement network scenarios meant to be for internal use only and leaked it to the Plain Dealer. The Plain Dealer chose to run it as a front page story seemingly trying to capitalize on Cleveland's large constituency of doom and gloomers. I think, if anything, this article will force Jeff to maintain the current level of service in CLE for several more years before finally putting to bed this hub. It is unfortunate as CLE has some of the nicest employees in the CAL system.

He is referring to:

September 1, 2010
EMPLOYEE BULLETIN NO. 18
CO issued the following news release today.
CONTINENTAL CEO REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO CLEVELAND; DENOUNCES DISTORTION OF FACTS


CLEVELAND – Sept. 1, 2010 -- Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) Chairman, President and CEO Jeff Smisek today reaffirmed Continental’s commitment to Cleveland and denounced legal maneuvers by a plaintiffs’ lawyer aimed at distorting the facts.

“Continental is firmly committed to Cleveland and will remain so after its merger with United,” said Smisek, who will head the new United Airlines after the combination with Continental. He referred to reports insinuating that Continental would drastically reduce its service to Cleveland as a result of the merger.

The reports were based on one of many simulations analyzed before the merger was announced, and modeled the most severe recession or disaster scenario. The simulation was promoted by the plaintiffs’ attorney in the trial of a lawsuit filed in California challenging the merger.

“Other simulations showed Cleveland maintaining its size and others showed it growing,” Smisek said. “This was never a plan for Cleveland or any of our hubs.”

“We are meeting with Mayor Jackson and business leaders on an on-going basis to ensure Cleveland maintains excellent air service after the merger. We consider Cleveland an important hub and one of our hometowns and resent this attempt to cause concern among our customers and employees,” Smisek said.

He reiterated that he expects the merger will have minimal impact on front-line employees, “including our co-workers in Cleveland.”

Sounds like the same song and dance we heard from Delta.... Now look at CVG- it's just smoke and mirrors to appease the politicians....

From the Wednesday 9/1/10 Daily News Update:

Jeff reaffirms commitment to CLE and denounces distortion of facts
Jeff today reaffirmed CO’s commitment to CLE and denounced legal maneuvers by a plaintiffs’ lawyer aimed at distorting the facts.
“Continental is firmly committed to Cleveland and will remain so after its merger with United,” Jeff said. He referred to reports insinuating that CO would drastically reduce its service to CLE as a result of the merger with United Airlines (UA).
The reports were based on one of many simulations analyzed before the merger was announced, and modeled the most severe recession or disaster scenario. The simulation was promoted by the plaintiffs’ attorney in the trial of a lawsuit filed in California challenging the merger.
“Other simulations showed Cleveland maintaining its size and others showed it growing,” Jeff said. “This was never a plan for Cleveland or any of our hubs.”
“We are meeting with Mayor Jackson and business leaders on an on-going basis to ensure Cleveland maintains excellent air service after the merger. We consider Cleveland an important hub and one of our hometowns and resent this attempt to cause concern among our customers and employees,” Jeff said.
He reiterated that he expects the merger will have minimal impact on front-line employees, “including our co-workers in Cleveland.”

I assume SWA ran the simulation that has CLE growing. And Jeff is right, he has no plan. He never has. The plan is see what Delta does as far as announcing a new int'l destination then we'll put another Q to BOS.

Of course CLE is going to turn into another PIT. There is no way United will keep ORD CLE and EWR the same.

its the exact same thing Pittsburghers heard from USair.