Continental increases NY-London flights

By Joe Brancatelli

For decades, there have beentoo many seats between New York and London, thus making it the cheapest international route for advance-purchase travel. But airlines slashed the number of flights and the size of the aircraft they used on the so-called NyLon run in the aftermath of the 2008 collapse of financial markets in New York and London. The failure of the three all-business-class carriers on the route (Maxjet, Eos and Silverjet) has reduced the seat supply, too.

As financial markets have stabilized in recent months, however, something astonishing has happened: There are days when getting a seat to London for last-minute travel is a dicey proposition. So carriers are once again paying attention to the “underserved” NyLon market. First to move: Continental Airlines, which will increase its Newark capacity by as much as 25 percent this year. It launches its fourth daily Newark-London/Heathrow flight on March 27 and its fifth daily flight on October 28.

The carrier will use Boeing 757s on four of the flights and a Boeing 777 on the fifth. Continental adds that all of its flights to and from London will be outfitted with its new lie-flat seat beds by June 1.