American Continental Airlines Boeing 737 America Continental Airlines Continental Airlines， Inc.) was founded in 1934， headquartered in Houston， Texas American. Is USA fourth， the world's fifth largest airline. Continental Airlines and United Airlines merged， to form the world's largest airline. Two the board of directors of the company have agreed to merge， the statement announced in May 3， 2010. After the merger the new airline will use the name American United Airlines， the company headquarters will be located in the old United Airlines headquarters in Chicago， United Airlines CEO Glen - Tilden (Glenn Tilton) will serve as chairman of the board， Continental Airlines CEO Geoff Smee Xie Ke (Jeff Smisek) as chief executive. The new company will be competing with the USA two other airlines -- Delta and American airlines.