Continental is airline of the year!

Whisky I agree with you. I remember when CO Tried to steal my pension money.

Continental is airline of the year!
The standards must have been lower this year

Or they simply must have improved?

Continental is airline of the year!
The standards must have been lower this year

I have in the past flown with CO to EWR. I found the seats and service to be fine, but wouldn’t say the airline is anything special, I have flown with airlines which deserve this award far more!

I have been fortunate to fly with Continental to the States around 3 times a year and
I have always found their service to be very good but not outstanding so I am a little surprised that they have won this title. It has been a few years since I have flown with Cathay or Singapore but I really can’t believe that their high standards have dropped and they always set the bench mark for me.
Having said that there have been a couple of times when the Continental flight back to GLA has been overbooked and the Good Lady and I have been upgraded to Business First and that truly is the way to fly. Top notch service.
There is one down side to Continental and that is that their frequent flyer programme
has altered this year and to get the full benefit we will now have to purchase a
dearer class of ticket and, no, I don’t expect any sympathy

Just goes to show that U.S. airlines aren’t as bad as everyone thinks. 😉 Most of them just aren’t nearly as good as SQ, EK, VS, CX, etc.

i know GD1…i havent travelled much on US airlines but i do find UA good.

A few other awards were handed out, this from another article on the same subject:

The Asia Pacific region fared very well, with Singapore Airlines
taking home four awards including Best International First Class and
Best Economy/Coach Class. Cathay Pacific Airways won Best
Trans-Pacific Airline, and Australian based Virgin Blue won best Low
Cost/No Frills Airline, beating incumbent title holder Southwest
Airlines as well as EasyJet and Ryanair.

UK flag carrier, British Airways, took home two prestigious awards:
Best Airline Based in Western Europe and Best Trans-Atlantic
Airline.

CSA Czech Airlines won the Best Airline based in Central/Eastern
Europe for the first time.

What do you mean? I’m not the only one that makes typos! 😡 You feelin’ me?

No, no, no Greekdude dude, I meant I was being childish for laughing at it! I was heavily praising you for making me giggle! Still mates? 🙂 😉 😀 😎

[QUOTE=Silver Snapper]

Emirates of course had their head in the sand when they
overlooked Scotland’s most convenient/accessible/profitable airport at EDI for one on the edge of nowhere. 😀 😀 😀

Oh change the record Joe for feck’s sake. 😀

Good post there WD, It’s true what you say about opinions being based upon who you ask. And I know that analogy doesn’t just apply to airlines.

i have flown continental and they deserve to win, they have nice staff, comfort seats, all round a good service

Extremely childish

What do you mean? I’m not the only one that makes typos! 😡 You feelin’ me?

Continental may cut jobs as fuel prices soar
By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent
Published: May 19 2004 18:43 | Last Updated: May 19 2004 18:43

Continental Airlines, the fifth largest US carrier, is considering lay-offs and cuts in wages and pension benefits in the most drastic response yet by the struggling US aviation industry to the impact of the surging oil price.

The airline announced that it had raised its fares worldwide with immediate effect with increases of $10 for each leg of a flight up to 1,000 miles and $20 above 1,000 miles.

It warned that with fuel prices at current levels and the present weak fare environment, it expected to make a loss in the second quarter to the end of June and “a significant loss for 2004 and beyond”.

Continental faces a nervous wait to see whether its lead in raising fares is followed by other leading US airlines, or whether competitive pressures will force it to rescind the increases.

US carriers have been seeking for many months to increase domestic fares to reflect higher oil prices but have encountered tough resistance from passengers and have found it difficult to make the increases stick.

Gordon Bethune, Continental chairman and chief executive, said last week “in the US you’re only as good as your dumbest competitor, and there are some dumb competitors out there”.

The US aviation industry is facing its fourth successive year of heavy losses as the high oil prices and the lack of any revenue recovery have blown away hopes expressed at the start of the year that the sector could return to a modest profit in 2004.

Many leading US airlines have simply been too poor after three years of crippling losses to put hedges in place, and the continued pressure from low cost carriers, has made it harder for the airlines to have much pricing power to pass on costs.

A growing wave of airlines outside the US have started to impose fuel surcharges or to raise fares during the past two weeks led by British Airways and Qantas. Others to follow suit include Virgin Blue in Australia and Air France, KLM, SN Brussels Airlines SAS Scandinavian Airlines and Virgin Atlantic in Europe.

In Hong Kong Cathay Pacific said on Wednesday that it had applied to impose a surcharge on passenger flights due to compensate for the surge in jet fuel prices.

James Hughes-Hallett, Cathay chairman, warned, however, that the surcharges could dampen demand in the short-haul leisure market, if they remained in place for more than six months.

Hong Kong-based Dragonair has also applied to the authorities to impose a HK$65 ($8.33) surcharge per one-way flight.

Continental said that its fare increases would only cover 15-20 per cent of the full impact of the present level of oil prices.

Mr Bethune said that if the airline was not able to pass on the extra fuel costs through higher fares it would ultimately be forced to seek “significant wage and benefit concessions and furloughs”.

Continental had originally expected to break even this year after improving operating income by $900m through measures to cut costs and generate increased revenues during the past two years.

A year ago it had budgeted for average jet fuel prices in 2004 of 68 cents per gallon, however, compared with current prices of $1.14 per gallon.

An airline’s fuel bill typically accounts for 12-16 per cent of its total expenditure and is second only to labour costs.

Best airline depends on who you ask. The employees aren’t too thrilled at all. The pilots are still working under concessionary pay scales that were established during their exit from bankrupcy in the early 1990’s. Now there is the threat of concessions on their already 10 year old conession pay?

I’m also not too thrilled by the lack of proper fare increase to cover the increased fuel cost. As Gordon is quoted saying, Continental Airlines is only willing to squeeze 20% of the increased fuel cost out of the passengers and then look to the employees to cover the rest. That’s like a department store offering a sale on shoes by requiring their salesmen to pay the different between the original and sale price so the company doesn’t lose any money. How about raising the cost of tickets as operational costs increase instead of looking to the employees to give up their income so some chump from West Virginia can still buy a coast to coast ticket for $59.

Interesting literature. As I mentioned before, there are a few airlines that stand out above the rest as having supurb service. The aforementioned SQ, EK, CX, VS plus a small handfull of others lead the way. Everybody else is pretty much in the same echelon. The same ‘bad things’ you read about U.S. carriers applies to the rest of these carriers, as well.

I know that, it has just seemed to me that I have read alot of bad things about the U.S carriers. I know it applies to other airlines. Im just saying that I was surprised it won an award when I have read so many bad things. Im not saying it is bad of course, (I have never flew a U.S carrier).

Well, they are in a good position, hub wise, to feel people from the S. Pacific into Europe.

Extremely childish – but you had me laughing with that typo!! I think everyone will want to fly them now!!! 😀 😀 😀

as I have read many bad things about all the US majors.

Interesting literature. As I mentioned before, there are a few airlines that stand out above the rest as having supurb service. The aforementioned SQ, EK, CX, VS plus a small handfull of others lead the way. Everybody else is pretty much in the same echelon. The same ‘bad things’ you read about U.S. carriers applies to the rest of these carriers, as well.

Well done to CO
i remember when they were not as good as they are now
but they have improved so much

Well done to them!
I have to say im surprised about it though, as I have read many bad things about all the US majors.

Its easy for EK to use oil money and cherry-pick far east connections from established airlines

It will be interesting to see what will happen in 25 years when they run out of oil. They better really build up their tourism industry in the meantime.

Remember EK has a very small domestic market and they rely on poaching connecting services from countries that
have bigger domestic markets… 😡

Well, they are in a good position, hub wise, to feed people from the S. Pacific into Europe. It’s surely one of the options for Greeks (along with TG and SQ) and Cypriots living in Australia to go back home.

Just goes to show that U.S. airlines aren’t as bad as everyone thinks. 😉 Most of them just aren’t nearly as good as SQ, EK, VS, CX, etc.

Its easy for EK to use oil money and cherry-pick far east
connections from established airlines…. would they
succeed as gamekeepers rather than poachers.? 😮

Remember EK has a very small domestic market and they
rely on poaching connecting services from countries that
have bigger domestic markets… 😡

[QUOTE=RIPConcorde]Very well done to CO for beating off stiff competition from EK and SQ etc. (I presume) Of course it is all down to them showing such initiative and launching EWR-EDI! 😉

Emirates of course had their head in the sand when they
overlooked Scotland’s most convenient/accessible/profitable airport at EDI for one on the edge of nowhere. 😀 😀 😀

BAA’s airports should be allowed to compete instead of being in the same cozy – for BAA – bed together.. :p :p :p