Continental Airlines
History
Early history
was formed in 1934, operating airmail and passenger services in the American Southwest over a route originating from El Paso and extending through Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Las Vegas, New Mexico, to Pueblo, Colorado. The airline commenced operations with the Lockheed Vega, a single-engine plane that carried four passengers. Varney was awarded a 17-cent-rate airmail contract between Pueblo and El Paso; it carried passengers as a sideline. Following cancellation of all domestic airmail contracts by the Roosevelt administration in 1934, Robert F. Six learned of an opportunity to buy into the Southwest Division of Varney Speed Lines which needed money to handle its newly won Pueblo-El Paso route. Six was introduced to Louis Mueller. Mueller had helped found the Southwest Division of Varney in 1934 with Walter T. Varney. As an upshot of all this, Six bought into the airline with US$90,000 and became general manager on July 5, 1936. The carrier was renamed Continental Air Lines on July 8, 1937. Six relocated the airline's headquarters to Denver Union Airport in Denver in October 1937. Six changed the name to "Continental" because he wanted the airline name to reflect his desire to have the airline fly all directions throughout the United States.During World War II, Continental's Denver maintenance base converted Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, Boeing B-29 Superfortresses and North American P-51 Mustangs for the United States Army Air Forces. Profits from military transportation and aircraft conversion enabled Continental to contemplate expansion and acquisition of new airliners after the war. Among those were the Douglas DC-3, the Convair 240 and the Convair 340. The Convairs were Continental's first pressurized airliners. The airline's early route was El Paso to Albuquerque and Denver, with routes being added during the war from Denver, Albuquerque, and El Paso eastward across Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. In 1946 Continental flew Denver to Kansas City, Wichita, Tulsa, and to Oklahoma City, and from El Paso and Albuquerque to San Antonio. Each route included stops in several of 22 smaller cities.
In the early 1950s, Continental began several interchange routes with American, Braniff, and United Airlines. Routes were operated on American from Los Angeles and San Francisco to El Paso continuing onto Continental's route to San Antonio and Houston. Continental's Denver to Kansas City route would interchange onto St. Louis with Braniff Airways and United's routes from Seattle and Portland to Denver would interchange with Continental's routes onto Wichita and Tulsa. These interchange routes continued for many years until Continental was able to secure routes of its own between each city.
In 1955, Continental merged with Pioneer Air Lines, gaining access to 16 more cities in Texas and New Mexico. In August 1953, Continental flew to 35 airports and Pioneer flew to 19, but Continental's network didn't reach beyond Denver, El Paso, Houston and Kansas City until April 1957 when it started Chicago-Denver-Los Angeles, two Douglas DC-7Bs a day each way. Pioneer's Executive Vice President Harding Luther Lawrence arrived at Continental as a result of the merger. Bob Six commented on more than one occasion that, "the reason we bought Pioneer was to get Harding." Harding Lawrence implemented several innovative changes at Continental as well as a flamboyant advertising campaign during his ten years as Six's protege. During Lawrence's tenure Continental grew by 500 percent. Lawrence left Continental in April 1965 to head Braniff Airways.
Six petitioned the Civil Aeronautics Board for longer routes to larger cities, hoping to transform the regional into a trunkline like United Airlines, TWA, and American Airlines. He was discussing with Boeing for Continental to become one of the first to operate the soon-to-be-launched 707. The timing was crucial, since new routes would justify the 707s, and vice versa.
1960s
Continental Airlines had seen a broad expansion of its routes, thanks to a responsive CAB and persistent efforts by Six and Executive Vice President Harding Lawrence, who both frequently referred to his company as "the Airline that needs to grow." In 1958 Continental began turboprop flights with the Vickers Viscount on the new medium-haul routes. The British-manufactured Viscount four engine turboprop, which Continental referred to as the "Jet Power Viscount II", was the first turbine powered aircraft operated by the airline with Continental claiming it was "First in the west with jet-power flights". The CAB permitted Continental to drop service at many smaller cities, enabling the carrier's new aircraft to operate more economically on longer flights. In 1960 Continental flew more than three times the passenger-miles it had in 1956.During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Six was the airline industry's leading lower-fare advocate. He predicted that increased traffic, not higher fares, was the answer to the airline industry's problems. To amazement from the industry, he introduced the economy fare on the Chicago-Los Angeles route in 1962. He later pioneered a number of other low or discount fares which made air travel available to many who could not previously afford it. One of Continental's early innovations was a system-wide economy excursion fare which cut the standard coach fares by more than 25%. Continental took delivery of the first of five 707-124s in spring 1959, and started Chicago-Los Angeles nonstop on June 8. Having so few jets, Continental needed radical innovations to the 707 maintenance program. It developed the "progressive maintenance" program, which enabled Continental to fly its 707 fleet seven days a week, achieving greater aircraft utilization than any other jet operator in the industry. Six, not being satisfied with 707 service, introduced innovations and luxe cuisine on Continental's 707 flights which were described as, "... nothing short of luxurious" by the Los Angeles Times, and, "... clearly, the finest in the airline industry" by the Chicago Tribune.
In the early 1960s, Continental added flights from Los Angeles to Houston, nonstop as well as via Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, Midland-Odessa, Austin, and/or San Antonio. In 1963, the company headquarters moved from Denver to Los Angeles. By late 1963, Continental had discontinued service to most of its smaller cities in Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas with the exception of Lawton, OK and Wichita Falls, TX which continued operating with DC-9 and 727 jets until 1977. Total passenger-miles in 1967 were more than five times greater than in 1960, but 61% of the 1967 total was on unscheduled flights. During the late 1960s the company disposed of the last of its turboprop and piston-powered aircraft—one of the first U.S. airlines to do so. Continental replaced the Viscount fleet with Douglas DC-9-10s and then added Boeing 727-100s and 727-200s. The DC-9 and 727 were to become the workhorses of the fleet from the late 1960s. The DC-9s were phased out by the late 1970s ; the 727-200 was the mainstay of its narrow-body fleet until the late 1980s. In 1968 a new livery was launched: orange and gold cheatlines on a white fuselage; and a black "jetstream" logo on the iconic "Golden Tails" of the airline's aircraft. The slogans adopted in 1968 and used for more than a decade were, "The Airline That Pride Built" and, "The Proud Bird with the Golden Tail". 1960s saw international routes awarded to Continental in the Transpacific Case, but they were cancelled by the Nixon Administration.
During the Vietnam War, Continental provided extensive cargo and troop transportation for United States Army and Marine Corps forces to Asian and the Pacific bases. Continental's long range Boeing 707-324Cs were the most common non-military aircraft transiting Saigon Tan Son Nhat airport; in 1967, 39% of CO's passenger-miles were on scheduled flights. With Continental's experience in Pacific operations, the carrier formed subsidiary Air Micronesia in May 1968, inaugurating island hopping routes between Yap/Saipan/Guam, Majuro, Rota, Truk, Ponape and Honolulu. "Air Mike", as it was known, initially operated with Boeing 727-100 aircraft with open-ocean survival gear, doppler radar, and a large complement of spare parts. A senior mechanic flew on every Air Mike flight until the late 1970s. Air Micronesia operated as subsidiary Continental Micronesia until 2010. In September 1969, Continental began flights from Los Angeles to Honolulu/Hilo and one month later from Albuquerque to Chicago, San Antonio, and San Francisco. In 1970, Continental was awarded routes from Seattle and Portland to San Jose, Hollywood-Burbank Airport, and Ontario, California—all of them growing markets.
| Continental | Pioneer | |
| 1951 | 106 | 42 |
| 1955 | 221 | 11 |
| 1960 | 885 | |
| 1965 | 1,386 | |
| 1970 | 4,434 | |
| 1975 | 6,356 |
In 1963, Continental denied employment to African-American pilot and Air Force veteran, Marlon D. Green. A United States Supreme Court decision allowed a Colorado anti-discrimination law to be applied to his case against Continental. Green flew with Continental for 13 years from 1965 until his retirement in 1978. His employment paved the way for the hiring of ethnic-minority pilots by all U.S. carriers, an industry milestone which was finally realized in 1977 after Southern Airways hired their first minority pilot.
1970s
At Six's insistence, Continental was one of the three launch airlines for the Boeing 747. On June 26, 1970, Continental became the second carrier to put the 747 into U.S. domestic service. Its upper-deck first class lounge and main deck "Polynesian Pub" won awards worldwide for the most refined cabin interior among all airlines, as did meal services developed by Continental's Cordon Bleu-trained executive chef, Lucien DeKeyser. Continental's 747 services from Chicago and Denver to Los Angeles and Honolulu set the standard for service in the western U.S. On June 1, 1972, Continental's widebody DC-10 service began. Six had insisted that Continental place a large order for DC-10s with manufacturer McDonnell Douglas. This decision again proved prescient, since the publicity associated with Continental's splashy 747 service Chicago-Denver-Los Angeles-Honolulu had stimulated increased market share and increased traffic for all carriers. Denver, Houston and Seattle were growing rapidly in the 1970s; the DC-10s took over most flights between Denver and Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and Seattle, and between Houston and Los Angeles.File:Boeing 727-224 N32718 CO ORD 19.02.78 edited-3.jpg|thumb|right|Boeing 727-224 at Chicago O'Hare Airport in 1978
During the 1970s, Denver served as the airline's main hub. The 747s were focused on the Chicago-Los Angeles-Honolulu routes, with one daily round trip through Denver. The DC-10s served large markets. DC-9s and 727s predominated elsewhere and added frequencies on DC-10 routes. Next to Braniff, Continental operated fewer aircraft types during this period than any U.S. trunkline, affording savings in parts, maintenance, and crew training. The DC-10 enabled the airline to capitalize on traffic growth in the west. Continental saw market share grow annually in each DC-10 market through the 1970s, until relative market parity was achieved with United, the principal competitor on most of the DC-10 routes. The same innovations introduced on the 747s appeared on Continental's DC-10s, including the "Polynesian Pub", but after the 1973 oil crisis more seats were needed and the DC-10 pubs were removed. Continental phased out its 747s in 1978 in favor of the DC-10s. From the mid-1970s until it merged with Texas International, Continental operated only DC-10s, 727-100s, and 727-200s.
From 1961 to 1982, Continental was headquartered at the west end of the Los Angeles International Airport on World Way West. The facility included the general offices, system operations control, the central maintenance facility, flight kitchen, and Los Angeles crew bases.
In 1974, after years of delays and legal proceedings, Continental started flights between Houston and Miami, and on May 21, 1976, Continental was authorized to operate long-sought routes between San Diego and Denver. President Jimmy Carter and Civil Aeronautics Board chairman Alfred Kahn had been promoting deregulation of the airline industry, which would dissolve the CAB and for the first time in industry history allow U.S. carriers to determine without government supervision where they would fly, and how much they could charge. Continental began flights from Denver to Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa/St. Petersburg in Florida. That year, President Carter authorized Continental to begin daily round trips between Air Micronesia destination Saipan and Japan, and approved a route for Continental from Los Angeles to Australia via Honolulu, American Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia. The South Pacific service began May 1, 1979. After the 1978 passage of the Airline Deregulation Act Continental embarked on a route expansion. October 1978 saw Continental begin flights from the New York area airports to Houston and Denver, and from Denver to Phoenix. That month Continental started DC-10 flights between Los Angeles and Taipei, via Honolulu and Guam. Service between Houston and Washington, D.C., began in January 1979. In June 1979 Continental linked Denver with Washington, D.C., Las Vegas, San Francisco and San Jose and also began Houston-Tampa service. The airline suffered in 1979 when the DC-10 was grounded nationwide following the crash of American Airlines Flight 191. Continental Airlines only operated the DC-10 and the 727 at the time, so flights to Hawaii were cancelled during the grounding. By the time of the Texas Air Corp. acquisition in 1981, Continental's post-deregulation growth had allowed it to penetrate every major U.S. airline market from the hubs in Denver and Houston, with the corresponding expansion of facilities at both of these airports. But that growth came at the cost of continuing losses. In Denver, Continental's rapid growth provided the final impetus for the construction of the new Denver International Airport, which would be completed almost fifteen years later.
While deregulation allowed Continental to expand into new areas, it hurt the company's existing business as consumers were for the first time able to choose lower fares over Continental's better service. In 1978 Continental and Western Airlines, which held a nearby headquarters and similar fleet, began a nearly three-year attempt to merge. The route systems would have been complementary, with little overlap; although they both served the Western states, Continental had strength in Hawaii, southern-tier and the Great Plains states; Western's strengths were in the California intrastate market, Alaska, Mexico, and the Intermountain West. Both airlines served the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain states, but along different routes from Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle and Phoenix. The merger attempt failed when Texas Air Corporation interceded with its acquisition of Continental. With the Airline Deregulation Act the world changed for Continental as noted by Smithsonian historian R.E.G. Davies: "Unfortunately, the policies that had been successful for more than forty years under Six's cavalier style of management were suddenly laid bare as the cold winds of airline deregulation changed all the rules -- specifically, the balance between revenues and expenditures."