Denver May Be Out As Continental Hub

DENVER - Continental Airlines will move nearly 1,400 pilots and flight attendants out of Denver later this year and assign jets to other airports as it continues to cut back its money-losing operation here, the airline said.

The deep cuts raise the possibility that Continental may no longer use Denver as a traditional hub, where passengers are sent to change planes before completing their trip.

As the airline examines its operation in Denver, it may stop basing pilots and flight attendants in the city altogether, Continental chief executive Robert Ferguson told employees in a recorded message.

Continental has been steadily moving away from the traditional hub-and-spoke method of funneling passengers to a handful of airports. By scheduling long waits for connecting passengers to arrive, hubs mean airlines get less use out of their jets and crews.

Taking a page from Southwest Airlines, Continental has been trying to avoid its hubs and depend on cheaper tickets to fill its planes, rather than connecting passengers. That allows the airlines to get the planes off the ground quickly and improve productivity.

A Continental source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that a decision hasn't been made to stop hub flying at Denver, but that the airline is likely to add more of its lower-fare flights into the city.

With Continental's so-called Peanuts Fares, passengers can still change planes at many airports, but the emphasis is on generating traffic from local passengers who might otherwise drive or take a bus.

The basic strategy of the operation is to use low fares to attract passengers rather than a far-flung route system.

Michael Boyd, a consultant at Aviation Systems Research Corp. in Golden, Colo., and a critic of the costly new airport in Denver that is replacing Stapleton International, said he thinks Continental will eventually close its hub here.

"You don't have a major hub without a crew base. You put a crew base where your biggest operation is," Boyd said.

In his recorded message, Ferguson said, "We are realigning our fleet to better fit our schedule and increase our revenue.

"Putting the right aircraft on the right routes has meant and will mean . . . relocating fleets and reassigning crews to the correct places," he said.

He said that between May and June of this year, 529 pilots and 863 of Continental's approximately 1,100 flight attendants in Denver will be reassigned elsewhere in the Continental system. That would leave about 250 pilots based at Denver.