Just in time for spring break, Continental Airlines is launching service from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Merger partner United Airlines had pulled out of those markets in 2008, as part of a broader plan to ground its Boeing 737 fleet, leaving Southwest Airlines with the lion’s share of flights between Chicago and Florida’s east coast resorts.
Starting February 17, 2011, Continental plans to fly two flights per day from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale and one daily flight to West Palm Beach. Continental also plans to launch a daily flight from Denver to Ft. Lauderdale.
The new flights are among the early changes in service that have been announced as Continental and United integrate operations following their Oct. 1 merger. Continental this week shifted its check-in counters at O’Hare to United’s Terminal 2.
But while they are part of the same Chicago-based parent company, United and Continental will continue to operate separately until their reservation systems are fully integrated, a task slated to be completed by Spring 2011, and they gain a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration.
jjohnsson@tribune.com
United’s check-in counters are in Terminal 1
I believe Continental has moved to Terminal 1 also, not Terminal 2 as stated in the story