News Release
Nine More Continental Airlines Employees Drive Home Free Ford Explorers
Perfect Attendance Program pays big rewards for reliability/dependabilityHOUSTON, July 25, 2000 -- Nine more employees of Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL and CAL.A) on Wednesday will receive the keys to their new Eddie Bauer Limited Edition Ford Explorers as the total number of cars awarded since 1996 under the Perfect Attendance Program rises to 75.
At a raucous ceremony on the front lawn of company headquarters in downtown Houston, the winners will receive their cars from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gordon Bethune and President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Brenneman. The winners are:
| Name | Position | ALWAYS comes to work in: |
Resides |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.Mark Brown | First Officer-737 | Houston | Hewitt, Texas |
| 2.Carol Crawford-Severance | Flight Attendant | Cleveland | Middleburg Heights, Ohio |
| 3.Miguel Europa | Outside Sales Representative | Monterrey | Nuevo Leon, Mexico |
| 4.Alexander Hardin | Passenger Sales Representative | Tokyo | Tokyo, Japan |
| 5.Tom Jackson | Technician | Newark | Flanders, N.J. |
| 6.Adell Johnson | Customer Service Agent | Houston | Houston, Texas |
| 7.Madalyn Matos | Airport Sales Agent | Cleveland | Amherst, Ohio |
| 8.Ken McCarthy | Asst. Ops. Mgr.-Chelsea Catering | Cleveland | North Olmsted, Ohio |
| 9.Shwanda Warner | Reservations Agent | Houston | Stafford, Texas |
Winners were drawn from a pool of more than 14,368 employees who qualified with perfect attendance records between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2000. In the past four years, Continental Airlines has seen a marked drop in absenteeism, which the company attributes to its Perfect Attendance Program. Continental’s absenteeism rate is one of the lowest in the industry. In the airline industry, lower absenteeism translates to better reliability for customers, with reduced wait times on reservations phone lines, shorter check-in lines at the airport and more on-time flight departures.
The Eddie Bauer Limited Edition Ford Explorers have an MSRP of $34,470 and include keyless entry, 6-way power driver and passenger seats, a 4.0L-V6 engine, and 4-wheel disc brakes with ABS (price and options subject to change). Continental also pays tax, title and license, and "grosses up" the winners' pay so they don't take a hit on income taxes as a result of their win.
Continental Airlines is the fifth largest airline in the U.S., offering more than 2,200 departures daily to 136 domestic and 87 international destinations. Operating major hubs in Newark, Houston and Cleveland, Continental (www.continental.com) serves more international cities than any other U.S. carrier, including extensive service throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Continental is in the top quarter of FORTUNE magazine’s "100 Best Companies to Work for in America," and is ranked the nation’s No. 1 airline in customer satisfaction for long and short-haul flights by Frequent Flyer Magazine and J.D. Power and Associates. Continental has received numerous awards for its BusinessFirst premium cabin (Condé Nast Traveler, OAG, Entrepreneur and SmartMoney magazines), OnePass frequent flyer program (InsideFlyer’s Freddie Awards) and overall operations and management (Air Transport World’s 1996 Airline of the Year).