Continental Airlines Inc. and UAL Corp. have completed virtually all preconditions to a merger, which they plan to close on Oct. 1, 2010. We are affirming our 'B' corporate credit rating (CCR) and most issue ratings on Continental, based on our evaluation of the credit quality of the consolidated United Continental Holdings Inc. We are lowering or raising selected ratings on Continental's enhanced equipment trust certificates (EETC's), based on our revised views of collateral protection available to holders of those EETC's. We are removing all ratings from CreditWatch, where we placed them with negative or (in the case of the EETC's) developing implications May 3, 2010. We are assigning a stable outlook to Continental's 'B' corporate credit rating. The combined
