Continental Airlines has announced the second 787 route that it will initiate with the arrival of the Boeing 787.  The first was from Houston to Auckland, NZ.  This time, it’s Houston to Lagos, Nigeria and I’m seeing a trend here. 

Continental is clearly intending to make Houston much more of a international gateway city and that makes some sense to me.  Houston Intercontinental Airport isn’t overcrowded, has excellent feed to it domestically and the new 787 makes a lot of long, thin routes not only possible but profitable. 

It doesn’t hurt that there is a fair bit of oil business in Nigeria too. 

This flight will be subject to a fair bit of regulatory approval and planning on the part of ContiUnited but it is both sensible and doable.  It’s clear that the 787 will be used to expand opportunities rather than simply replace existing aircraft, at least by ContiUnited anyways. 

It’s also further proof that very large aircraft flying hub to hub (hello A380 and B747) as a model for international travel is going to be reduced as these new, next generation widebody aircraft come online.

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