Continental Airlines

Our goals are simple--they are our customers' goals. We continue to deliver a high-quality product each and every day, getting our customers where they want to go, on-time and with their bags, while providing pre-flight and inflight service that is globally recognized for consistency and excellence. Continental emerges from bankruptcy; Continental absorbs other airlines facing bankruptcy, including Eastern, People Express, and Frontier. Incentive-led Continental ranks first among majors for on-time performance and earns its first profit in ten years. Continental Airlines, Inc. is the fifth largest U.S. airline, based on 2001 revenue passenger miles (RPMs). The company carries passengers, cargo, and mail throughout the world. The company serves more than 200 airports worldwide, with the majority of them located in the United States, and has extensive service to Latin America. Domestic flight services are operated mainly through its business hubs in Cleveland, Houston, and Newark, from which the carrier has attained a market leading position in the New York area's transatlantic traffic. Demoralized by bitter labor relations and a takeover by corporate raider Frank Lorenzo in the 1980s, Continental became a poster child for turnaround management in the 1990s. After almost a decade of financial losses and declining sales, Continental finally turned a profit in 1995. Regional unit Continental Express was spun off in a 2002 initial public offering (IPO) as ExpressJet Airlines, Inc. The beginnings of Continental Airlines, Inc. can be traced back to 1934, when Walter Varney founded an airline company that he named Varney Speed Lines. Varney Speed Lines was the fourth airline created by its founder; the first had been purchased by Boeing's United Aircraft, and the other two had failed. Varney operated his newest business alone until 1937, at which time a man by the name of Robert Foreman Six used $90,000 to purchase a 40 percent interest in the company. Six had a background as a pilot and flight school instructor, having dropped out of high school to work odd jobs and take flying lessons in the mid-1920s. In 1929, at the age of 22, Six earned his pilot's license and was running the Valley Flying Service in Stockton, California, which sold scenic air tours of the California countryside to area residents and tourists. When the effects of the Depression halted his flying service, Six worked at a Boeing Air Transport flight school in San Francisco, training airline pilots. He later left the United States and worked for the China National Aviation Company in Shanghai. Upon his return to the United States the following year, Six convinced his new father-in-law to lend him the money that was used to acquire his interest in Varney Speed Lines. Six's $90,000 investment was used mainly to pay debts that Varney had accrued during the company's first three years. After the company's financial standing was restored, only a small portion of money remained to purchase new or upgraded equipment. Therefore, Six used his negotiation skills to convince the Lockheed Corporation to sell Varney Speed Lines three L-12 planes on credit. Soon thereafter, Six led the company in changing its name from Varney Speed Lines to Continental Airlines, contending that the young airline would never be successful with a name like "Varney." Such efforts soon earned Six a position as the company's president. Following his appointment to the presidency of Continental Airlines, Six led the company through a period of rapid expansion. First on his agenda was the task of enlarging the airline's fleet of planes. At that time, the DC-3 was the most popular, practical, and durable plane on the market; unfortunately, it was also the most expensive, and Continental could not afford it. Instead, Six decided to purchase a number of L-14 Lodestars from Lockheed, and then hired 12 of the company's first stewardesses to staff the new planes. Meanwhile, the company also was workin