Re: Continental CEO sees dim prospects for JetBlue

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....You are right, CO is alienating its FFr's big
time...myself included. They are dumping partner
airlines (HP I have mixed emotions about), and the
other non-US partners don't offer too many options. I
would rather fly and have my points with NW now (more
upgrades, better service) than CO.......

Bryant Petitt
Cumming, GA

--- Steven Catron <stepan-ilych@multipro.com> wrote:
> Bethune might want to pay less attention to JetBlue
> and more attention to
> the extreme disaffection among his best customers.
> CO Platinum elites
> over at www.flyertalk.com are so fed up they're
> either leaving CO
> altogether, or booking on NW and other partners.
> That way the partners
> get the revenue, CO gets the FF expenses.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <lafrance@verizon.net>
> To: <AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2002 15:40
> Subject: Continental CEO sees dim prospects for
> JetBlue
>
>
> > Continental CEO sees dim prospects for JetBlue
> >
> >
> > Wednesday April 17, 4:05 PM EDT
> >
> > HOUSTON, April 17 (Reuters) - Continental Airlines
> (CAL) Chief Executive
> Gordon Bethune said on Wednesday he was skeptical
> that upstart rival
> JetBlue Airways (JBLU) would succeed and said its
> soaring stock price was
> proving P.T. Barnum correct.
> >
> > Barnum, who founded the Barnum & Bailey Circus,
> was famous for
> supposedly saying "There's a sucker born every
> minute."
> >
> > Bethune made his comments at Continental's annual
> shareholder meeting in
> response to a question about his thoughts on
> JetBlue's stock price rising
> 70 percent since an initial public offering on
> Friday. It opened at $27,
> soared to $45 the same day and has stayed at that
> level.
> >
> > "It just says that P.T. Barnum was right," the
> outspoken Bethune said,
> drawing laughter from the audience.
> >
> >
> > "Since 1978 the record pretty well shows that no
> start-up airline...has
> really been successful, so the odds of JetBlue
> having long-term success
> are remote," he said.
> >
> > "I'm not going to say it can't happen because
> stranger things have
> happened, but I personally believe P.T. Barnum was,
> in that respect,
> correct."
> >
> > Officials at two-year-old JetBlue, a discount
> airline based in New York,
> were not immediately available for comment.
> >
> > Continental would love to see similar success in
> an IPO for its regional
> airline unit, ExpressJet Holdings Inc. (XJT), which
> was in the process of
> being completed on Wednesday. It was expected to be
> priced between $14 and
> $16 per share when it hits the market on Thursday.
> >
> > "We've had a lot of very, very favorable responses
> from institutions and
> retail sales and we expect them to go complete that
> transaction sometime
> today," Bethune said.
> >
> > Bethune also said that Continental, still
> recovering from the effects of
> the Sept. 11 attacks, hoped to boost its cash
> reserves from the current
> level of about $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion by
> year's end as a cushion
> against future shocks.
> >
> > He said the airline, which is the nation's fifth
> largest, had 55,000
> employees when the attacks occurred, but laid off
> 8,000 afterwards in
> cost-cutting measures. The lost work force is slowly
> being brought back,
> he said.
> >
> > "Today I'm pleased to report we are back above
> 48,000 and we continue to
> rehire our colleagues as demand returns," Bethune
> said.
> >
> >
> > Roger La France
> > EWR
> > CO767 or ewrgateman on IAM


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