FAA Issues Single Operating Certificate to United Airlines and Continental Airlines

CHICAGO, Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) announced today that it received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for a single operating certificate, marking another significant achievement in the integration of United Airlines and Continental Airlines.

This regulatory milestone, while significant from an operational policies and procedures perspective, does not change how customers interact with the airline. Customers of United and Continental will continue to shop for flights, obtain seat assignments and check flight status on each carrier's respective website until the company migrates to a single passenger service system in the first quarter of 2012. At that point, from a customer's perspective, the two carriers will function as one airline.

"I would like to thank the teams at United, Continental, the FAA, the Department of Transportation and the many regulatory authorities around the globe who put tremendous time and effort into our achieving a single operating certificate," said United's president and chief executive officer, Jeff Smisek. "While we have much work ahead of us as we integrate these two great carriers, this is a significant milestone."

The two carriers went through a rigorous 18-month process of aligning operating policies and procedures to obtain a single operating certificate from the FAA. A team of more than 500 employees from both carriers worked together to evaluate closely each pre-integration program, process and operating specification from both airlines to determine the best choice for the new United. The team streamlined more than 440 operational manuals, programs and procedures down to approximately 260 manuals for the new United – a process that involved roughly 2,000 changes.

Effective today, air traffic control communications will refer to all United and Continental flights as "United."  United and Continental announced their merger in May 2010 and closed the transaction on Oct. 1, 2010.

About United Continental Holdings, Inc.

United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) is the holding company for both United Airlines and Continental Airlines. Together with United Express, Continental Express and Continental Connection, these airlines operate an average of 5,717 flights a day to 376 airports on six continents from their hubs in Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Guam, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark Liberty, San Francisco, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. United and Continental are members of Star Alliance, which offers more than 21,200 daily flights to 1,185 airports in 185 countries. United and Continental's more than 80,000 employees reside in every U.S. state and in many countries around the world. For more information about United Continental Holdings, Inc., go to UnitedContinentalHoldings.com. For more information about the airlines, see united.com and continental.com or follow United on Twitter and Facebook.

SOURCE United Continental Holdings, Inc.