United Continental Holdings, Inc. announced Tuesday that its subsidiaries United Airlines and Continental Airlines will launch service on several new international routes in the first half of 2012, as the company expands its route network as a result of the merger. These new routes were included in the company’s previously announced capacity guidance.
Continental will add weekly nonstop service between Los Angeles and Durango, Mexico, in March, subject to government approval. The airline will also add new daily nonstop flights beginning in May between Washington/Dulles and Manchester, U.K., and beginning in June between Washington/Dulles and Dublin, Ireland, subject to government approval.
United will add new daily nonstop flights between Newark Liberty International Airport and Buenos Aires, Argentina, in April.
In addition, Continental will launch previously announced new daily service between Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport and Lagos, Nigeria, on November 16 and a second daily flight between Newark Liberty and Frankfurt, Germany, on January 2.
Over the past year, the company has leveraged the flexibility of its combined fleet to better match market demand. The company has added new routes from its hubs on the East and West coasts to international destinations such as Guadalajara, Mexico; Montreal, Canada; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Providenciales, Turks and Caicos; Shanghai, China, and Stuttgart, Germany, along with new intra-Asia routes between the Tokyo hub and Hong Kong and between the Guam hub and Okinawa, Japan. The merger also enabled the company to add a number of new domestic routes by using a mix of mainline and regional aircraft from both carriers more efficiently.
In the first year operating their combined mainline and regional network following the legal closing of the merger on October 1, 2010, United and Continental enplaned roughly 150 million customers on approximately two million flights around the globe, offering more destinations worldwide than any other carrier.
Visit www.UnitedContinentalHoldings.com