2010s

On January 1, 2010, Jeff Smisek, former president and COO, became the CEO of Continental Airlines.[56] Continental also planned to start seasonal nonstop service between Portland International Airport (PDX) and Ted Stevens International Airport (ANC), putting Continental in direct competition with former partner Alaska Airlines. This route was scheduled to start on June 10, 2010.[57] On February 16, Continental, along with its wholly owned subsidiary Continental Micronesia, announced that it applied for nonstop flights to Tokyo-Haneda as part of an open-skies agreement between the US and Japan. Continental planned to begin services to Tokyo-Haneda from its New York/Newark hub in late-October 2010, and Continental Micronesia planned to start service to Haneda Airport from its Guam hub.[58] However, Haneda slots were awarded to American, Delta, and Hawaiian Airlines instead. Continental Airlines also became the first airline to launch a mobile boarding pass service to London’s Heathrow. The service allowed customers to receive boarding passes electronically on their mobile phones or PDAs. The carrier was the first to offer the service on nonstop flights from the UK to the US.[59] Continental Airlines left the SkyTeam alliance on October 24, 2009, and joined Star Alliance on October 27, 2009.[51] Together with its subsidiaries, Continental has more than 2,423 daily departures, serving 130 domestic and 132 international destinations and has 42,210 employees as of December 2009. Since 1998, Continental's marketing slogan has been "Work Hard, Fly Right."