Airport expansion to add jobs, flights

The Cleveland airport becomes more of a hub for Continental.

CLEVELAND (AP) — A $50 million Continental Airlines Inc. expansion in Cleveland will add at least 70 flights by next summer, create 700 jobs and help relieve congestion at its Newark, N.J., hub, the airline’s top executive said Friday.

“I think it’s key. There’s clearly a lot of congestion in New York air space. There’s also a lot of people that live there,” Larry Kellner, Continental’s chairman and chief executive, said at a news conference to detail plans to expand at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

Many of the new flights serving the Cleveland hub will be regional jets reallocated from Newark, the airline said.

Between January and April, 38 percent of all flights at Newark Liberty and John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in the New York area were either late or canceled, leading to disruptions nationwide.

The 15,480 delayed flights from Newark left the ground an average 95 minutes after scheduled departure times, according to federal figures.

More of a hub

New seasonal nonstop Cleveland-Paris service will be in addition to Newark’s existing service, and can alleviate congestion there since it will give passengers another option for reaching Europe, the airline said.

“Building this connecting service here builds Cleveland into much more of a hub than it is today,” Kellner said. “It’s the smallest of our hubs today, and adding 20 new nonstop destinations really starts to build the scope and coverage of the Cleveland hub.”

The airline is receiving $16 million in state aid, including job-training help, and the city is promising improvements to the city-owned airport, including cleaner waiting areas, more concessions and parking and taxi-service upgrades.

This year, Continental expanded the number of seats it flies from Cleveland to San Francisco by 45 percent, Orlando, Fla., by 33 percent and Seattle by 32 percent.

Continental, the dominant carrier at Hopkins, added service to Quebec City in June and will add service to Oklahoma City and Ottawa by Sept. 30.

The moves will make Continental’s operations in Cleveland 10 percent bigger this year over 2006 and 40 percent bigger over a two-year period.

Gov. Ted Strickland said the expansion would protect 3,200 existing jobs.

The Cleveland airport had a quarter-million takeoffs and landings last year and served more than 11 million passengers. Newark Liberty had nearly a half-million flights last year and served nearly 36 million passengers.