Continental Airlines announced today that Colgan Air has been selected to operate 74-seat Bombardier Q400 turboprop planes on short and medium distrance routes starting early next year. The Q400, as we have mentioned in the past, is an update of the Dash 8 turboprop…with state of the art noise suppression, seating comfort, and engine technology.
Colgan Air was bought out by Pinnacle Airlines on January 18th. Pinnacle operates 127 Canadair Regional Jets under Northwest Airlink. Colgan operates 39 Saab 340s and 11 Beech 1900 turboprop aircraft under Continental Connection, United Express, and US Airways Express.
Pinnacle will acquire fifteen new Q400 aircraft which Colgan will operate as Continental Connection. Continental will purchase all the Q400 capacity at predetermined rates and industry standard costs under a ten year agreement to begin from the date of the last Q400 delivery. Continental will purchase fuel directly and provide it to Colgan at no cost. Delivery of the aircraft will be from December through June of 2008.
We look forward to seeing what routes Continental will opt to send them on.
