CONTINENTAL AIRLINES CELEBRATES RECORD SUMMER WITH BARBECUE LUNCH FOR 52,300 EMPLOYEES

Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL and CAL.A) will today (19 September 2000) serve a barbecue lunch to 52,300 employees systemwide to thank them for their hard work throughout summer 2000, which resulted in record-breaking performance for the airline.

Continental's Chairman and CEO Gordon Bethune, and President and COO Greg Brenneman, will be among the team of company executives and management serving the lunches across Continental's system.

"At Continental, we have learned that we all will win or lose together," said Bethune. "This celebration is our way of saying 'thank you' for working together to make Continental a winner."

Continental handled record load factors during the summer, with more passengers traveling in June and July 2000 than ever before. Despite heavy load factors and severe weather, Continental's average on time performance for the summer was 6.2 percentage points better than summer 1999.

Continental Airlines is the fifth largest airline in the U.S., offering more than 2,300 departures daily to 138 domestic and 96 international destinations. Operating major hubs in Newark, Houston and Cleveland, Continental (www.continental.com) serves more international cities than any other U.S. carrier, including extensive service throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Continental is in the top quarter of FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best

Companies to Work for in America," and is ranked the nation's No. 1 airline

in customer satisfaction for long and short-haul flights by Frequent Flyer

Magazine and J.D. Power and Associates. Continental has received numerous

awards for its BusinessFirst premium cabin (Condé Nast Traveler, OAG,

Entrepreneur and SmartMoney magazines), OnePass frequent flyer program

(InsideFlyer's Freddie Awards) and overall operations and management (Air

Transport World's 1996 Airline of the Year).