Skip to content
The Aviation Hub

Airline database

Airline search

Look up any airline in the world. Fleet size, when it was founded, its codes and callsign, plus everything we have published about it.

Try: Ryanair easyJet British Airways Emirates

Track it yourself

How much of the Continental Airlines fleet have you caught?

Spotter keeps your sightings on your own PC and works out what percentage of each airline fleet you have seen, so you know which registrations are still missing. One payment of £4.99, no subscription.

See Spotter

Continental Airlines

IATACO ICAOCOA

350 Aircraft in fleet
Founded
May 1934, (as Varney Speed Lines)
Callsign
CONTINENTAL
Headquarters
El Paso, Texas (1934–1937), Denver, Colorado (1937–1963), Los Angeles, California (1963–1982), Houston, Texas (1982–2012)
Hubs and bases
Cleveland, Denver–Stapleton, El Paso, Guam, Houston–Intercontinental, Los Angeles and 2 more
  • Cleveland
  • Denver–Stapleton
  • El Paso
  • Guam
  • Houston–Intercontinental
  • Los Angeles
  • Newark
  • Washington–Dulles
Ceased operations
3 March 2012, (merged into United Airlines)

What they fly

  • Boeing 737-800 126
  • Boeing 757-200 41
  • Boeing 737-500 36
  • Boeing 737-700 36
  • Boeing 737-900ER 30
  • Boeing 777-200ER 22
  • Boeing 757-300 21
  • Boeing 787-9 14
  • Boeing 737-900 12
  • Boeing 767-400ER 12
  • Boeing 787-8 11
  • Boeing 767-200ER 10

Sub-fleet numbers as listed on Wikipedia. Check a registration to see the individual airframe. Aircraft search

About the airline

Continental Airlines (simply known as Continental) was a trunk carrier, a major international airline in the United States that operated from 1934 until it merged with United Airlines in 2012. It had ownership interests and brand partnerships with several carriers. Continental started out as one of the smaller carriers in the United States, known for its limited operations under the regulated era that provided very fine, almost fancy, service against the larger majors in important point-to-point markets, the largest of which was Chicago/Los Angeles. However, deregulation in 1978 changed the competitive landscape and realities, as noted by Smithsonian Airline Historian R. E. G. Davies: "Unfortunately, the policies that had been successful for more than forty years under [Robert] Six's cavalier style of management were suddenly laid bare as the cold winds of airline deregulation changed all the rules—specifically, the balance between revenues and expenditures." In 1981, Texas International Airlines acquired a controlling interest in Continental. The companies were merged in 1982, moved to Houston, and grew into one of the country's largest carriers despite facing financial and labor issues, eventually becoming one of the more successful airlines in the United…

This summary is adapted from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence. Fleet size and other details are taken from the same article unless a source is shown against them.

Did you mean United Airlines?

9 emergencies, incidents and accidents we have reported involving Continental Airlines

Our coverage of Continental Airlines

25 articles