EXHIBIT 99.1

Contact: Corporate Communications

Houston: 713.324.5080

Email: corpcomm@coair.com

HOUSTON, July 20, 2004 -- Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) today reported a second quarter net loss of $17 million ($0.26 loss per share), which included a special charge of $19 million after taxes ($30 million before taxes) due to the retirement of leased MD-80 aircraft.

Excluding the aircraft retirement charge, Continental achieved a net profit of

$2 million ($0.03 earnings per share) for the quarter, which compares favorably to the First Call mean estimate of $0.09 loss per share.

A weak domestic fare environment caused in large part by the growth of low cost competitors and record high fuel prices continue to hurt the company's financial performance. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil hit an all-time high of $42.33 per barrel on June 1, 2004, and continues at over $40 per barrel.

"These results remain disappointing in a year where we hoped to break even," said Gordon Bethune, Continental's chairman and chief executive officer. "Our efforts to

return to profitability were overwhelmed by the continuing soft domestic yields, a record high cost of fuel, and a $265 million burden of taxes and fees paid to the government over the last three months."

Due to intense competition with low cost carriers, mainline yields continue to be weak, decreasing 1.6 percent year-over-year. Industry fare discounting and record high fuel prices drove Continental's consolidated breakeven load factor up to 78.7 percent.

Revenue passenger miles for regional operations were 30.9 percent higher on a capacity increase of 25.6 percent versus the same period in 2003, driving regional load factor up 3.0 points to 73.2 percent.

Despite overall weakness in domestic yields, Continental continued to maintain a domestic length-of-haul adjusted yield and revenue per available seat mile (RASM) premium to the industry. Passenger revenue for the second quarter 2004 and period to period comparisons of related statistics by geographic region for the company's mainline and regional operations are as follows:

(in millions) Revenue RASM ASMs

Domestic $ 1,166 5.2% (0.3)% 5.5%

Transatlantic 360 32.0% 1.2% 30.5%

Latin America 245 9.8% (3.3)% 13.5%

Pacific 147 55.2% 23.2% 26.0%

Total Mainline $ 1,918 12.9% 0.5% 12.4%

Regional $ 413 26.3% 0.7% 25.6%

Total System $ 2,331 15.1% 1.2% 13.7%

Beginning this quarter, Continental will supplementally disclose in its financial statements all taxes and fees remitted to various governmental entities that are charged on passenger tickets. For the first six months of 2004, those taxes and fees totaled $509 million. In the current competitive environment, substantially all of these taxes and fees are absorbed by Continental. The Air Transport Association estimates that the total tax and fee burden borne by the U.S. airline industry will exceed $14 billion in 2004, the same period for which they expect industry losses to be approximately $3 billion.

Abnormally severe weather throughout the Northeast, Southeast, Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes regions posed significant operational challenges for the entire industry during the quarter. Despite bad weather, Continental had few flight cancellations and maintained a systemwide mainline completion factor of 99.7 percent. Continental's on-time performance for the quarter, as reported to the Department of Transportation, was 74.3 percent, a notable accomplishment given the weather and Air Traffic Control delays.

"Despite 52 days of severe thunderstorms affecting at least one of our hub cities of Houston, New York and Cleveland, we cancelled only about one-half of one percent of the almost 100,000 flights we flew this quarter," said Larry Kellner, Continental's president and chief operating officer. "Our co-workers did an outstanding job of serving our customers and capturing revenue in spite of Mother Nature's obstacles."

Continental won top honors in the OAG Airline of the Year Awards 2004. Continental was the first North American airline to win "Airline of the Year," in addition to "Best Executive/Business Class" and "Best Airline Based in North America."

More than 10 million travelers of 92 different nationalities collectively ranked Continental Airlines No. 1 in the Best Airline - North America category and No. 2 in the Best Airline - Transatlantic category in a survey commissioned by Skytrax Research of London, U.K. The survey was conducted between June 2003 and March 2004.

Continental began offering free, high-speed wireless Internet in all of its domestic Presidents Clubs, except at Chicago where the company shares a club with Northwest Airlines. Continental is on target to complete wireless service at its international clubs by the end of the year.

Continental added several new international routes during the second quarter including flights between Newark Liberty International and Edinburgh, Scotland; Oslo, Norway; and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The airline also added flights between Houston and Port of Spain, Trinidad; Roatan, Honduras; and Montego Bay, Jamaica. The company added domestic service from Newark Liberty to Sacramento and Albuquerque.

Continental's regional operations, marketed as Continental Express, began service between Houston and Puebla, Oaxaca, and Toluca, Mexico; and Tallahassee, Florida; from Mexico City to McAllen and San Antonio; and from Newark Liberty to St. John's, Newfoundland.

Continental's mainline cost per available seat mile (CASM) increased 8.7 percent (CASM decreased 6.5 percent excluding special items and holding fuel rate constant) in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, with the increase largely due to the security fee reimbursement of $176 million in the second quarter 2003 and record high fuel prices.

"We continue to work on removing costs that our customers don't value," said Jeff Misner, Continental senior vice president and chief financial officer. "While we are making good progress on our initiatives, it is clear that we have much more work to do to become profitable in this weak domestic fare environment."

The $30 million special charge is for future obligations for rent and return conditions related to six leased MD-80 aircraft that were retired during the quarter. The company's 10 remaining MD-80 aircraft will be retired by January 2005.

In June, Continental filed an election with the IRS to preserve the company's eligibility for deficit reduction contribution relief under the recently enacted Pension Funding Equity Act. Under that legislation, Continental may reduce pension contributions otherwise due in 2004. The company continues to evaluate its 2004 contribution options to fund the pension plan and expects to make a decision regarding

the funding by mid-September 2004.

During the second quarter, Continental took delivery of one Boeing 757-300 and three Boeing 737-800s, and expects to take delivery of five additional Boeing 737-800s over the remaining six months of 2004.

The airline ended the second quarter with a record $1.9 billion in cash and short-term investments, of which $177 million is restricted.

Continental Airlines is the world's sixth-largest airline with more than 2,900 daily departures throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Continental serves 149 domestic and 119 international destinations - more than any other airline in the world - and nearly 200 additional points are served via codeshare partner airlines. With more than 42,000 employees, the airline has hubs serving New York, Houston, Cleveland and Guam, and carries approximately 51 million passengers per year. In 2004, Continental has earned awards and critical acclaim for both its operation and its corporate culture. FORTUNE ranks Continental one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America, an honor it has earned for six consecutive years, and also ranks Continental as the top airline in its Most Admired Global Companies in 2004. The carrier won major awards at the 2004 OAG Airline of the Year Awards including "Airline of the Year," "Best Airline Based in North America" and "Best Executive/Business Class." For more c ompany information, visit continental.com.

Continental Airlines will conduct a regular quarterly telephone briefing today to discuss these results and the company's financial and operating outlook with the financial

community and news media at 9:30 a.m. CT/10:30 a.m. ET. To listen to a live broadcast of this briefing, go to continental.com/company.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are not limited to historical facts, but reflect the Company's current beliefs, expectations or intentions regarding future events. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements. For examples of such risks and uncertainties, please see the risk factors set forth in the Company's 2003 10-K and its other securities filings, which identify important matters such as terrorist attacks, domestic and international economic conditions, the significant cost of aircraft fuel, labor costs, competition and industry conditions including the demand for air travel, airline pricing environment and industry capacity decisions, regulatory matters and the seasonal nature of the airline business. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this report.

The financial statement deconsolidation of ExpressJet in November 2003 affects the comparability of quarter-to-quarter financial results in all line items except passenger revenue. Post-deconsolidation, Continental's proportionate share of ExpressJet's net income is reflected in equity in the income of affiliates. Payments made to ExpressJet under Continental's capacity purchase agreement, previously eliminated in consolidation, are reported in ExpressJet capacity purchase, net, in 2004. See the attached table "ExpressJet Deconsolidation Impact" for a year-over-year comparison of individual items excluding the impact of ExpressJet deconsolidation.

-tables attached-

NOTE: 2003 amounts include the consolidation of ExpressJet while 2004 does not.

NOTE: 2003 amounts include the consolidation of ExpressJet while 2004 does not.

1. Includes regional jet operations.
2. The percentage of seats that must be occupied by revenue passengers for us to break even on a net income basis. Special charges of $19 million in the second quarter 2004 and the security fee reimbursement of $111 and fleet impairment losses and other special items of $8 million in the second quarter 2003 (all after taxes) included in the consolidated breakeven load factor account for 1.2 and (7.4) percentage points, respectively.
3. Includes impact of special charges and security fee reimbursement.

1. Includes regional jet operations.
2. The percentage of seats that must be occupied by revenue passengers for us to break even on a net income basis. Special charges of $54 million in 2004 and the security fee reimbursement of $111 and fleet impairment losses and other special items of $49 million in 2003 (all after taxes) included in the consolidated breakeven load factor account for 1.7 and (2.3) percentage points, respectively.
3. Includes impact of special charges and security fee reimbursement.

1. Represents increase (decrease) in amounts had ExpressJet been deconsolidated in 2003 and reported using the equity method of accounting at the 53.1% ownership interest in effect at that time.

1. Represents increase (decrease) in amounts had ExpressJet been deconsolidated in 2003 and reported using the equity method of accounting at the 53.1% ownership interest in effect at that time.

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CAL04070

EXHIBIT 99.2

Tax Sharing Agreement with ExpressJet Holdings, Inc.
During the second quarter, Continental recorded approximately $12 million related to the tax-sharing agreement with ExpressJet. Continental expects to receive approximately $48 million in 2004 and $25 million in 2005 related to this agreement. For more information regarding this tax-sharing agreement, please see our 2003 10-K.

Targeted Cash Balance
Excluding any potential cash contributions to our pension plan, Continental anticipates ending the third quarter of 2004 with an unrestricted cash and short-term investments balance of approximately $1.5 billion.

Debt & Capital Lease Payments
Debt principal & Capital Lease payments for the third quarter 2004 are estimated to be approximately $170 million.

Advanced Bookings - Six Week Outlook
Advanced bookings outlook by region through the end of August is as follows:

Domestic bookings are running about the same level as last year and we expect third quarter domestic load factor be about flat year-over-year (yoy). Domestic yields remain weak and we expect third quarter domestic yields to be down slightly (yoy).

TransAtlantic bookings are also about even with last year. Bookings currently indicate that third quarter TransAtlantic load factor will be up about a point yoy despite a capacity increase in this region of 25%.

Latin bookings are averaging a few points ahead of last year but we expect our third quarter Latin load factor will be about flat yoy.

Pacific bookings should finish well ahead of last year even as we move past the SARS period last year. We expect third quarter Pacific load factor will improve yoy by approximately 4-5 pts.

Consolidated is defined as mainline plus regional.

Please note that we have changed the presentation of fuel price per gallon to include related taxes on fuel.

Permanent tax differences are primarily related to non-deductible per diems, meals and entertainment.

During the second quarter Continental announced it had stopped recording income tax benefit on book losses. However, with the strength of June's performance and the volatility of our hedge positions, which are recorded in Other Comprehensive Income, we were able to record a tax benefit on book losses for the second quarter. Going forward, Continental expects to have minimal ability to benefit future book losses, subject to recognition of hedge or other gains.

EPS Estimated Share Count
Share count estimates for calculating basic and diluted earnings per share at different income levels are as follows:

These share count charts are based upon several assumptions including market stock price and number of shares outstanding. The number of shares used in the actual EPS calculation will likely be different from those set forth above.

(a) Special items include $55 million and $30 million of pre-tax charges during the first and second quarters of 2004, respectively, primarily relating to MD80 aircraft retirements.

(b) Cost per available seat mile excluding special items is computed by subtracting special items from operating expenses and dividing by available seat miles. This statistic provides management and investors the ability to measure and monitor Continental's cost performance on a consistent basis.

(c) Cost per available seat mile excluding fuel, fuel taxes and special items is computed by multiplying fuel price per gallon, including fuel taxes, by fuel gallons consumed and subtracting that amount from operating expenses then dividing by available seat miles. This statistic provides management and investors the ability to measure and monitor Continental's cost performance absent fuel price volatility. Both the cost and availability of fuel are subject to many economic and political factors and therefore are beyond our control.