30.05.2006
Headed for New York

Continental Airlines welcomed the first passengers on its new service from Copenhagen to New York with champagne, balloons and live music. The US Ambassador to Denmark and Klaus Bondam, the Copenhagen Mayor of Technical and Environmental Affairs, were among the guests when the route opened last Wednesday morning.

Headed for New York, the first Continental Airlines flight from Copenhagen Airport took off with 142 passengers on board.

Among the first passengers on the US airline’s new route was Charlotte Nymark of Copenhagen who crosses the Atlantic about every second month to visit her fiancé in New York.

“It will be good to have more competition on the route to New York. I sometimes fly domestic in the US on Continental, and I look forward to seeing what they can offer on this intercontinental route,” commented Charlotte Nymark, who works in the shipping industry.

Together with the other passengers on the maiden trip from Copenhagen, she attended a small opening ceremony for the new route at gate C28, which also included 50 invited guests, among them the US Ambassador to Denmark, James P. Cain, and Copenhagen’s Mayor of Technical and Environmental Affairs, Klaus Bondam.

Champagne before take-off

“Breakfast in Copenhagen, lunch in New York,” read the text on an advertising banner for Continental in the gate area, which was decorated with flags and balloons, and where passengers were welcomed with coffee, champagne and croissants.

Brian S. Hunter, a businessman of New Jersey, was one of the US passengers who enjoyed a glass of champagne before take-off while listening to a live jazz band. “I am convinced that many US business travellers will use this route,” said Brian S. Hunter, who works in the construction industry and was returning from a visit to a Danish supplier in Jutland.

Klaus Bondam also hopes that the new service will bring even more Americans to Copenhagen: “It is important that Copenhagen and Denmark have close relations with the rest of the world, and an additional flight connection clearly contributes to that.”

Continental


 

 From the opening of Continentals' new route

Continental uses Boeing 757-200s with 172 seats, of which 16 are BusinessFirst seats and 156 are economy seats.

The flights leave Copenhagen every day at 9 am and arrive in Newark Airport at 11.45 am local time.

The flying time is appr 8 hours and 45 mins westbound and 7 hours and 55 mins eastbound.

From New York, there are connections on Continental’s route network in the US, Canada and Latin America.

Continental Airlines is the world’s sixth largest airline with more than 3,200 daily flights.


 Continental