Continental realigns Asia-Pacific sales and marketing team

[B]HAGÅTÑA, Guam[/B]—Continental Airlines announced last week the realignment of the company’s sales and marketing leadership in the Asia-Pacific region. The realignment follows the airline’s announcement this past June that it plans to exit from SkyTeam and to join the Star Alliance while developing joint ventures across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Latin regions, which will be overseen by Mark Erwin, Senior Vice President-Corporate Development and Alliances.

Erwin will be focusing his energies on the alliance transition, a critical project for Continental and a first in the industry. Walter Dias, previously Staff Vice President of Sales and Marketing-Guam and Micronesia, has been appointed to the newly created position of Managing Director of Greater China and Southeast Asia for Continental Airlines. Dias will be based out of Hong Kong and will oversee sales and marketing activities in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai, where Continental Airlines is scheduled to launch new flight services to New York in March 2009.

“It has been a sincere pleasure for me to have made Guam my home for the past 15 years,” stated Dias. “The people have been fantastic and I even gained a beautiful family here on the island. I am proud to have been part of Continental’s tireless efforts to promote our beautiful island to people around the world and will continue to do so in my new position.

China is a vibrant country and represents a great opportunity for Guam to increase the number of visitors to the island in the coming years.”

The realignment also includes the promotion of Charles Duncan to Managing Director of Asia/Pacific for Continental Airlines. He was previously Managing Director of Japan at Continental Airlines. Duncan will remain in Tokyo, and in his new role he will be responsible for overseeing sales and marketing activities across the Asia-Pacific region including China, Guam, Honolulu, and Japan.

David Kendell will remain in Guam as Sales and Marketing Director for Guam and Micronesia. He will oversee sales and marketing activities for the Micronesia region, including Cairns, Guam and Saipan, Honolulu, Palau, the Micronesian islands, and Manila.

Also remaining in Guam is Jay Wedding, Chief Operating Officer for Continental Micronesia. Wedding is responsible for all aspects of the Continental operation in Asia- Pacific including in-flight, maintenance, and airports.

In Japan, Toru Takahashi, Director of Sales, will focus on all activities in Tokyo as well as Osaka, Charters, and Marketing. Mitsunori Takahashi will continue as Senior Manager and will oversee sales activities in the seven regional cities served by Continental Airlines, including Sapporo, Sendai, Niigata, Nagoya, Okayama, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka. Continental remains committed to maintaining its leadership position in the Japan-Micronesia market.

These four people—Dias, Kendell, Toru Takahashi, and Mitsunori Takahashi—will report directly to Duncan.

David Hilfman, Senior Vice President Worldwide Sales commented, “I am very excited about this team. The time is right to put a senior leader in China. Our business has grown since 2001 to three daily non-stop flights to New York. In addition, following on our first-ever charter flight from Shanghai to Guam in February, nobody is better suited than Wally to develop this new market for Guam.”

“With Charles, and the other members of his team David, and Toru and Mitsunori Takahashi we have a talented group with deep experience in the region, who will be focused on our customers and business partners,” said Hilfman. [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]