Continental Airlines Again Ranked No. 1 Most Admired Global Airline By FORTUNE Magazine

Yahoo! Finance ^ | Wednesday March 1, 1:04 pm ET | Staff

[Paleo Conservative]

HOUSTON, March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL - News) today announced that it was again rated the top airline on FORTUNE magazine's annual airline industry list of Most Admired Global Companies. This is the third year that Continental has topped that list.

Last week, FORTUNE also announced that Continental was ranked the most admired airline on FORTUNE's annual America's Most Admired airline industry list.

"We are honored to have topped both America's Most Admired and Most Admired Global Companies airline industry lists," Chairman and CEO Larry Kellner said. "My co-workers work hard every day to deliver an outstanding product and I'm glad that their efforts have been recognized."

Corporate and airline executives, boards of directors and industry analysts ranked the airlines based on nine attributes: innovativeness, employee talent, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment value, quality of products and services, and globalness.

Continental Airlines is the world's sixth-largest airline. Continental, together with Continental Express and Continental Connection, has more than 3,100 daily departures throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, serving 151 domestic and 133 international destinations, more than any other carrier in the world. More than 400 additional points are served via SkyTeam alliance airlines, which include Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, KLM, Korean Air and Northwest Airlines. With 42,000 employees, Continental has hubs serving New York, Houston, Cleveland and Guam, and together with Continental Express, carries approximately 61 million passengers per year. Continental consistently earns awards and critical acclaim for both its operation and its corporate culture.

[goldstategop]

They must be doing something right to be the #1 airline in the world.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
> The

[Paleo Conservative]

If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.

[The KG9 Kid]

I flew Continental all the time as a kid in the '70s, and have a fond admiration for them. Still, I like American Airlines better. My Uncle-in-law Kenny flew for American Airlines for 30+ years.

[Paleo Conservative]

I flew Continental all the time as a kid in the '70s, and have a fond admiration for them. Still, I like American Airlines better. My Uncle-in-law Kenny flew for American Airlines for 30+ years.

Braniff was better in the '70s. I got to see the Bicentennial parade of ships in New York harbor on July 4, 1976 from the air in a red "Flying Colors" Braniff 727. The pilot executed a roll so we could see it as we climbed out of La Guardia airport.

[martin_fierro]

Flew Continental recently on a trip to Pittsburgh.

'Twas a damnsight better than United.

They actually served "food" on one leg of the flight.

[roaddog727]

Ibounce back and forth between Continental and American. United sucks, as does Delta.

Southwest is good for regional travel, as is midwest express.

I absolutely refuse to fly ATA

[MoodyBlu]

Gonna fly Continental from Newark to Milan on April 10th. Last time I flew Continental was out of Denver to Chicago back in 1974, one of their DC10 red-eyes.

I hope they are as good as the article suggests.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

Continental is good. Delta was one of the best before they took over other airlines and became unionized.
I like Southwest because you can always find a low fare, the flights are on schedule and attendants are Texas friendly.

[Larry Lucido]

[freedumb2003]

Hard to see how they can be "admired" if they keep loosing money.

[phantomworker]

Never would have guessed. They must not advertise much.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We were late flying out of Mexico City, heading for the beaches at Ixtapa several winters ago. The pilot apologized in Spanish, then in English for the delay. To make amends, he said he would take us on a tour of the volcano that was rumbling near their capitol. He banked the big 727 as we went over the cone and the smell of sulfur was quickly evident. I thought he was going to put us right in the hole but he poured the coals to the three engines and it seemed like we rocketed out.

[ccmay]

Interesting. It wasn't that long ago that they were s**t. I haven't flown them in years, may have to give them a try.

-ccm

[Yo-Yo]

"Have you seen the baggage loader?"

"Yeah, it's over there by the forklift."

[Prophet in the wilderness]

I always thought that Singapore Airlines was the worlds top rated airline, then Qantas Airlines

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Gotta be careful flying jet planes near any volcano.
There was a Philippine's airliner that it's engines " flamed out " or stalled in mid flight due to the ash from the volcano's smoke, ( I believe it was a 747 ) and it was a woman pilot ( please everyone correct me if I am wrong in my information ).
The plane flew into the ash from the volcano, and the engines stalled or stopped running, and you can guess what happened next.
The plane did managed to land safely, but, I bet that was a hair raising flight to say the lest.

[Turbopilot]

Airline awards are pretty meaningless; at any given time most airlines in the world will be ranked "best" by some magazine, group, or committee. Delta got the same award from Executive Travel magazine, for example, and American got it from World Travel Awards.

Nevertheless, good for CO.

[Turbopilot]

A British Airways 747 lost all four engines over a volcano in Indonesia in 1982, and the same thing happened to a KLM 747 over Alaska in 1989. I'm pretty sure the BA crew was all male but don't know anything about the KLM crew. In both cases at least some of the engines were later restarted and both planes landed safely.

[GOP_1900AD]

My most recent experience with them was absolutely supurb.