The air carrier, once a strong partner of Delta and Northwest, split with the SkyTeam alliance last month, but remains at the McNamara Terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. On Tuesday, the Wayne County Airport Authority, which oversees Metro, approved Continental's exodus to the North Terminal. The authority will pay $825,000 to prepare 9,000 square feet of shell space there for Continental, and the airline will begin to use three gates at the south end of the terminal in March.

Advertisement The move extricates Continental from its sublease with Delta at the McNamara Terminal and will lower expenses for other airlines at the North Terminal, since the airlines there share costs. Delta's operation at the McNamara Terminal is its second-largest hub, and is decidedly SkyTeam turf: Except for Continental, all of the carriers there -- Delta, Northwest, Air France and KLM -- are SkyTeam members. Continental, dwarfed as a result of the Delta/Northwest merger, left SkyTeam for the larger Star Alliance, which includes US Airways and United Airlines. Other members of Star Alliance, plus the competing Oneworld Alliance, serve Detroit from the North Terminal, which opened last year. By using the same terminal, Continental and its Star partners will make it easier for passengers ticketed on multiple carriers in the alliance to make connecting flights. Example: A traveler connecting from a Lufthansa flight from Germany to a Continental run to Houston has to exit the North Terminal, take a shuttle bus to the McNamara Terminal and go through security again. When the North Terminal opened, all of the non-SkyTeam carriers operating at the McNamara Terminal moved to the North, eliminating such transfers. In addition to facilitating smoother connections between carriers, airline alliances afford enhanced frequent flier benefits for passengers. They also help coordinate marketing and sales efforts around the globe. Airport authority spokesman Scott Wintner said few passengers will have to jump terminals to make connections until Continental joins its Star partners at the North Terminal. Continental had been subleasing space from Delta at the McNamara under a contract the company assumed from merger partner Northwest. Delta spokesman Kent Landers confirmed late Tuesday that Continental will be leaving the subleased space, but didn't elaborate on the details of the split. Continental's departure from SkyTeam and the McNamara Terminal will help close a long chapter between the airline and its former alliance partners, Northwest and Delta. Continental joined SkyTeam at the same time as Northwest and its European partner KLM Royal Dutch. Northwest and Continental even mulled a merger in the late 1990s, a move that was quashed by antitrust authorities in Washington. Ltd.