The Hindu Business Line : Continental Airlines to take off on Mumbai-New York route

Plane pointers
A laptop power outlet, satellite phone, privacy hood in seats.
Flying time approximately 16 hours 15 mins (Mumbai-New York) and 14 hours 50 mins (New York-Mumbai).
Service will link 230 other cities in North, Central and South America.

Mr Jim Summerford (left), Vice-President (Europe and Middle East), Continental Airlines, and Mr Laurent Recoura, Sr. Country Director - India, at a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday. — Paul Noronha

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Mumbai March 7 Continental Airlines, the world's fifth largest airline, announced on Wednesday daily non-stop flights between Mumbai and New York effective October 31, subject to government approval.

Mumbai will be the thirtiethcity in Continental's trans-Atlantic route network. Currently it is operating a New Delhi-New York non-stop service since 2005.

The new service will link 230 other cities in North, Central and South America, through Continental's new unique New York hub at Newark Liberty International Airport. The new daily flight will operate a 283-seater Boeing 777-200 aircraft, carrying 48 passengers in the BusinessFirst cabin and 235 passengers in the Economy class. Flying time will be approximately 16 hours 15 minutes West-bound (Mumbai-New York) and 14 hours 50 minutes East-bound (New York-Mumbai)

Over the next few months, Continental will hire staff for its ground operations in Mumbai. ``For our Mumbai operations, we will hire almost the equal number of people recruited earlier in Delhi,'' said Mr Laurent Recoura, Senior Country Director-India, Continental. Currently, Delhi operations include 25 Continental employees recruited at the Delhi airport and a Marketing and Sales team outsourced to `Stic' travel group, Continental's general sales agent in India.

The BusinessFirst service has features like specially-engineered electronic sleeper-seats in a 2-2-2 configuration with adjustable `winged' headrests. Other features include privacy hoods and large seat-wide wingers for greater privacy. All seats feature a laptop computer power outlet, a satellite phone, a flexible neck-reading light and a personal entertainment system offering 16 channels of video games.

The airline plans to install audio-video on demand in the BusinessFirst and Economy cabins. It will allow customers to choose from more than 250 movies, 300 short subject programs and 150 compact discs with a jukebox feature to make individual playlists. In addition, the system has 25 video games and the interactive `Berlitz World Traveller' foreign language program.

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