Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) today
reported a 72.4 percent load factor for 2001, 2.1 points below last year`s
load factor.  For December 2001, Continental reported record domestic,
international and systemwide December load factors of 72.5, 73.0 and 72.7,
respectively.  The systemwide December load factor is 1.3 points above the
previous record reported for December 2000.

Continental reported a record 82.9 percent on-time arrival rate and a
record 99.8 percent completion factor for the month of December.  For 2001,
Continental`s on-time arrival rate, which counts cancelled flights as delayed,
was 80.7 percent and its completion factor was 97.6 percent.  Excluding
cancellations due to the events of Sept. 11 and subsequent schedule reduction,
the on-time arrival rate was 82.2 percent and the completion factor was
99.2 percent.

Continental ended 2001 with cash and short-term investments of more than
$1.1 billion, which includes $168 million of deferred transportation taxes.
 
In December 2001, Continental flew 4.5 billion revenue passenger miles
(RPMs) systemwide and 6.2 billion available seat miles (ASMs), resulting in a
traffic decrease of 10.6 percent and a capacity decrease of 12.3 percent
versus December 2000.  Domestic traffic was 2.9 billion RPMs, down
10.3 percent from December 2000, and domestic capacity was 4.0 billion ASMs,
down 11.3 percent from last year.

Lower year-over-year yields mitigated somewhat by higher load factors
resulted in a decrease in estimated systemwide passenger revenue per available
seat mile (RASM) of between 14 and 16 percent for December 2001, as compared
to December 2000.  For the month of November 2001, RASM declined 17 percent as
compared to November 2000.

Continental Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of Continental Airlines,
reported a load factor of 62.3 percent for 2001 and a record 61.8 percent for
December 2001.  The 2001 load factor is essentially unchanged from the 2000
load factor, and the December 2001 load factor is 0.4 points above the
previous record in December 2000.  Continental Express flew 280.5 million RPMs
and 454.0 million ASMs in December, resulting in a traffic increase of
11.3 percent and a capacity increase of 10.7 percent versus December 2000.

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