Big Continental Order Gives Boeing a Boost : Expansion: Fresh out of bankruptcy, the airline wants the aerospace company to build it 92 jets for $4.5 billion.

Continental Airlines, which emerged from bankruptcy reorganization last month, gave a boost to struggling Boeing Co. on Wednesday by ordering 92 jets for about $4.5 billion.

The airline also took options on 98 additional jets in the largest Boeing Co. order in nearly 2 1/2 years. With the options, the package could exceed $9.8 billion.

The deal came as a blow to rivals Airbus Industrie, which lost a $2-billion order from Continental in March, and McDonnell Douglas, which was also left out in the cold. The orders won’t help thousands of Boeing workers facing layoffs, however.

Richard Albrecht, executive vice president of Boeing Commercial Air Group, said the orders had been factored into employment projections.

Boeing executives announced plans in March to eliminate 27,000 jobs by mid-1994, mostly because of a slowdown in work prompted by a deep recession in the commercial airline business.

Continental ordered 50 737-500s with options for 50 more; 25 757s with options for 25; 12 767-300ERs with options for 18, and five 777Bs with options for five.

The deal replaces previous Continental orders for 50 Boeing 737s, 25 757s, 13 Airbus A330s and seven A-340s, all dropped during its reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, said Wolfgang Demisch, an industry analyst and managing director of United Bank of Switzerland Securities in New York.

Continental’s second reorganization under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy laws ended late last month.

“Now that the company has come out of bankruptcy, it has essentially restructured those orders and gone to an all-Boeing fleet decision,” Demisch said.

Rather than expanding Continental’s fleet, the new planes will replace aging jets with quieter, more efficient, state-of-the-art aircraft.

The Airbus planes were too big, and the A-330 lacked the range to fly nonstop between Europe and Houston, one of Continental’s U.S. gateways, Continental President Robert R. Ferguson III said.

“These Boeing aircraft will allow us to replace aircraft now in our fleet with planes that will give our passengers the highest levels of comfort and reliability,” he said.

The Houston-based airline, which has about 10% of the domestic market and serves 57 destinations abroad, expects to save $300 million a year in maintenance, fuel and other costs with the new jets, Ferguson said.

The 737s were ordered for delivery in the period from January, 1994, to July, 1997; the 757s for May, 1994, to March, 1997; the 767s for January, 1995, to a yet to be determined time in 1999, and the 777s for August, 1997, to April, 1998.

The options extend through 1998 for the 737s and 757s, 2000 for the 777s and 2005 for the 767s.

Continental is still negotiating with financial backers to determine how many of the planes the company would own and how many would be leased, Ferguson said.