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Welcome aboard. On behalf of the entire Continental Airlines team, thank you for choosing to fly with us today. We celebrate our 75th anniversary this month, and to commemorate the occasion, we've brought you something special in this issue of Continental magazine. Throughout these pages, you'll learn about some of the forces that shaped the world over the seven and a half decades of our existence, and you'll also get to read about many key milestones of aviation and Continental history during that time. I've been at Continental for 14 of its 75 years, and during that time, I've seen the airline evolve in amazing ways. When I arrived in 1995, Continental had been through two rounds of bankruptcy and was teetering on the edge of a third. Under the leadership of Gordon Bethune, about whom you can read more on page 78, Continental not only averted bankruptcy, but went on to experience one of the most dramatic turnaround stories in business history. At the centerpiece of Continental's turnaround, and fundamental to our present and future success, is an outstanding group of co-workers who are the embodiment of the airline's Working Together culture. Working Together is what we call the "people" portion of our Go Forward plan, a one-page synopsis of our goals for each year, and it is critical to our success as a business. Under the Working Together cornerstone of the Go Forward plan, we promote a culture of open, honest communication and treating everyone with dignity and respect. We place a tremendous value on providing our co-workers with a positive, empowering work environment, and giving them the tools they need to succeed at their jobs. By doing so, our co-workers are then able to provide you, the customer, with the industry-leading service you expect from Continental. I am proud to be a part of this culture and share in this experience. No matter what challenges the constantly evolving airline industry brings to our door, my co-workers do a tremendous job, and I'm honored to be on their team. Instead of thanking a specific employee this month, I want to dedicate this issue to the entire Continental team, including our 43,000 current co-workers, as well as the many retired co-workers who built Continental's history and made the airline what it is today. In
addition, I want to thank all of you, our loyal customers, for your business.
We've had a great time serving you over the past 75 years, and we hope to serve
you for years to come. Not many 75-year-olds anticipate future growth and believe
their best years are ahead of them, but that's exactly what we're looking forward
to at Continental. Photograph: Mark Green |
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