Continental Airlines announced a couple weeks ago that they intended to cut about 11% of their capacity this September versus fall ’07. Today the specific routes and airports were announced. While many of them make sense as they are serving smaller cities that probably cannot support the service at the higher fare levels necessary, there are a few surprises.
Houston George Bush Intercontinental:
- Cali, Colombia
- Chatanooga, Tenn.
- Guayaquil, Ecuador
- Hartford, Conn.
- Monclova, Mexico
- Montgomery, Ala.
- Oakland, Calif.
- Palm Springs, Calif.
- Reno, Nevada
- Sarasota, Fla.
- Tallahassee, Fla.
- Washington – Dulles
Newark Liberty:
- Albuquerque, N.M.
- Cologne, Germany
- Santiago, Dominican Republic
- Sarasota, Fla.
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- San Jose, Calif.
- Tucson, Ariz.
Cleveland Hopkins: Austin, Texas
- Birmingham, Ala.
- Charleston, S.C.
- Charleston, W. Va.
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Des Moines, Iowa
- Detroit, Mich.
- Green Bay, Wis.
- Greensboro, N.C.
- Lexington, Ky.
- Little Rock, Ark.
- Memphis, Tenn.
- Nashville, Tenn.
- Norfolk, Va.
- Oklahoma City, Okla.
- Omaha, Neb.
- Ottawa, Canada
- San Antonio, Texas
- San Diego, Calif.
- Sarasota, Fla.
- Savannah, Ga.
- Toledo, Ohio
- Tulsa, Okla.
- Washington-Dulles.
Guam A.B. Won Pat:
- Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.
As a result of the discontinued service, the following stations will close:
- Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
- Cali, Colombia
- Cologne, Germany
- Santiago, Dominican Republic
- Guayaquil, Ecuador
- Monclova, Mexico
- Oakland, Calif.
- Palm Springs, Calif.
- Chattanooga, Tenn.
- Reno, Nev.
- Green Bay, Wis.
- Sarasota, Fla.
- Tallahassee, Fla.
- Toledo, Ohio
- Montgomery, Ala.
Cleveland will bear the brunt of the cuts, though Newark and Houston aren’t getting off too lightly. Of the most concern for Cleveland is the cutting of flights to Detroit and Memphis, reducing the connectivity options for getting to two of NorthWest’s hubs and connecting onwards on reward flights. Of course, NW appears to be keeping their flights for now, but who knows.
I’ve only flown on one of these routes (Newark-Cologne) and that one has suffered for a while now in terms of loads, and I only paid $268 r/t for my ticket, so I can imagine that they aren’t making much money there. Sad to see some of these go, but I’m not really all that broken up by it; I don’t lose much personally and I’d rather the airline stay in business – I’ve got a lot of miles to burn!
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