Continental to add new service to Heathrow

On Tuesday, Continental Airlines announced that it will launch a new service connecting Cleveland with London Heathrow, although it would not say how it had secured the needed landing and take-off slots at Britain’s busiest airport.

Access to Heathrow has been expensive for Continental and other airlines, and new transatlantic services could also have an impact on the application for antitrust immunity that has been made by American Airlines and British Airways.

Houston-based Continental Airlines launched its first services to Heathrow from Newark Liberty and Houston earlier this year, and reported that it paid $209 million for four pairs of slots at Heathrow – a record amount.

Later in the year, Continental secured a fifth pair of slots at Heathrow for another service from Newark, but the source of the slots was not revealed.

The carrier has said that it will discontinue service connecting Cleveland and Paris in 2009, and increase its Heathrow frequency to daily service through the month of September. The flights land at 9:15am, GMT, which is at the very end of the most expensive landing period.

Airlines often swap or trade Heathrow slots, and the chief executive at bmi, has described this as a hot market. After British Airways, bmi is the largest holder of slots at Heathrow, and this asset is a key aspect of Lufthansa’s plan to take over control of bmi in 2009.

www.continental.com