Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL and CAL.A) and Northwest Airlines (NASDAQ: NWAC) today announced initiatives to enhance the seamless service provided to customers by the two companies.

Effective June 2000, Northwest and Continental will be the first U.S. airlines to share self-service kiosks for customer check-in. This collaboration will initially allow E-Ticket customers booked on Northwest to use Continental’s eService Centers and Continental customers to use Northwest’s E-Ticket Electronic Service Centers to obtain boarding passes. Both Northwest and Continental will have nearly 425 self-service devices in 57 cities, providing travelers with the largest network of self-service check-in devices available anywhere. The initial phase of sharing E-Ticket self-service devices will be for customers without luggage to check.

The second initiative, Interline E-Ticket, which is expected to begin later in 2000, will allow customers to use one E-Ticket when flying Northwest and Continental within the same itinerary. The Interline E-Ticket system also will make it easier for the two airlines to accept E-Ticketed passengers from each other when customer travel plans change. Future plans include Interline E-Ticket issuance by Northwest and Continental through their respective websites (www. nwa.com and www.continental.com), reservation centers or travel agencies.
“Expanding E-Ticket to Northwest and Continental combined itineraries will substantially benefit our mutual customers. Over 60 percent of Northwest’s North America customers are now using E-Tickets,” said Al Lenza, vice president of Northwest Distribution Planning. “This is just one more advantage that the Northwest-Continental alliance provides the flying public.”

“This will be one of the largest interline applications for E-Ticket ever implemented and one that will further stimulate the growth of E-Ticket,” said Bill Brunger, vice president of Distribution Planning and Revenue Decision Support for Continental.

Northwest Airlines and Continental also are setting the industry standard for trip summary receipts issued to customers purchasing E-Tickets by providing customers with consistent information about their trip on Northwest, Continental or a combination of the two carriers.

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