Further Airline mergers

Quote: Pacomartin

The Latin American business from Houston was built up by Continental, but was inherited when United bought them out.

Actually it was built by a little airline called Texas International, which then merged with Continental. :) I forget who acquired whom.

Oh, I know this arcane fact only because I flew on their DC-9s to/from IAH a few times. Overall they were a perfectly pleasant airline to fly. Except once, and that was because I expected we'd return on Pan Am on a 747 :(

Quote: Nareed

Actually it was built by a little airline called Texas International, which then merged with Continental. :) I forget who acquired whom.

According to Wikipedia Texas International's "parent" company, Texas Air, acquired Continental.

Texas Air was a holding company that owned Texas International, and other smaller companies. It was largely owned and entirely controlled by Frank Lorenzo. At one point in the 80s he tried to acquire TWA, and wound up buying Eastern Airlines (so you know whom to thanks for its ultimate bankruptcy and disappearance).

Just the same, I have fond memories of Continental in the mid-80s. I flew them Mexico-Houston-London and back. Two things happened a few weeks before my trip.

1) The peso was devalued (this happened with distressing frequency in the 80s), and most foreign carriers would charge the difference in exchange rate for tickets purchased before the devaluation. The sole exception was Continental. So that saved my parents some money.

2) I failed Organic Chemistry 2, and would have had to either attend summer school or take a makeup exam within 12 months. Now, it was tricky keeping my parents from finding this out, but I was able to. The minute that beautiful DC-9 took off for IAH, I was happy beyond belief. :)

Oh, I passed the makeup exam shortly after I got back.