Continental, Northwest To Join SkyTeam May 1

Partners Continental and Northwest airlines on May 1 will join their newest ally Delta Air Lines in the global SkyTeam partnership with Air France and its acquisition target KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, according to Fay Beauchine, Northwest vice president of sales and customer relations. Speaking last week at the Masters Program in Washington, D.C. with sales executives from Continental and Delta, Beauchine also told attendees that the additions to SkyTeam will give the alliance a 20 percent share of industry capacity--nearly on par with the Star Alliance and ahead of Oneworld.

Beauchine added that SkyTeam will offer expanded customer choice in flight schedules including 1,100 worldwide destinations--similar to the other two global groupings--616 of which are served only by one participating carrier.