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Continental releases op. report

Continental Airlines reported a December consolidated load factor of 77.7 percent, 1.2 points above last year’s December consolidated load factor. Continental Airlines Reports December 2005 Operational Performance

The carrier reported a mainline load factor of 78.0 percent, 0.7 points above the December 2004 mainline load factor, and a domestic mainline load factor of 79.7 percent, 2.6 points above December 2004.
All three were records for December. In addition, the airline had an international mainline December load factor of 75.8 percent, 1.7 points below December 2004.

During the month, Continental recorded a U.S. Department of Transportation on-time arrival rate of 71.0 percent and a systemwide mainline completion factor of 99.7 percent.

In December 2005, Continental flew 7.0 billion consolidated revenue passenger miles (RPMs) and 9.0 billion consolidated available seat miles (ASMs), resulting in a traffic increase of 13.1 percent and a capacity increase of 11.4 percent as compared to December 2004.

In December 2005, Continental mainline flew 6.2 billion mainline RPMs and 7.9 billion mainline ASMs, resulting in a mainline traffic increase of 11.9 percent and a mainline capacity increase of 10.9 percent as compared to December 2004.

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Domestic mainline traffic was 3.5 billion RPMs in December 2005, up 9.2 percent from December 2004, and domestic mainline capacity was 4.4 billion ASMs, up 5.7 percent from December 2004.

For the month of December 2005, consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (RASM) is estimated to have increased between 7.0 and 8.0 percent compared to December 2004, while mainline passenger RASM is estimated to have increased between 5.5 and 6.5 percent compared to December 2004.

For November 2005, consolidated passenger RASM increased 10.3 percent compared to November 2004 while mainline passenger RASM increased 9.1 percent from November 2004.

Continental ended the year with unrestricted cash and short-term investments of approximately $1.95 billion.

Continental’s regional operations (Continental Express) had a record December load factor of 75.4 percent, 4.6 points above last year’s December load factor.

Regional RPMs were 817.2 million and regional ASMs were 1,083.3 million in December 2005, resulting in a traffic increase of 23.1 percent and a capacity increase of 15.6 percent versus December 2004.
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