Tuesday, April 15, 2008

At Last, Continental Flies to Heathrow

From the beginning of time, Continental Airlines wanted to fly to London's Heathrow Airport. Due to government regulations, it could not do so. The closest Continental could get to was London's Gatwick Airport.

Things had changed starting 3/29. Thanks to the Open Skies agreement that was signed between the U.S. and the European Union, Continental Airlines began to offer twice-daily nonstop service to Heathrow Airport from both Newark Liberty and Houston's George Bush International Airports.

Newark Airport is one of the two major international airports in the New York City metropolitan area. For years, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, both UK carriers, were the two airlines that operated the Newark-Heathrow route. What about our US airlines? On the surface, it certainly looks to me that we've gotten the short end of the stick in the whole affair!!!

No wonder Continental's CEO Larry Kellner said, "At last we will be able to give our customers something they have long requested -- the opportunity to fly to both London's main airports with their preferred airline".

Comments?

2 comments:

alan said...

Is the Open Sky Agreement applied to Cathay Pacific as well ?

Bill C said...

No. Open Sky Agreement only applies to airlines from EU countries.