KLM IN ALLIANCE TALKS WITH CONTINENTAL

   KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is in talks to form an alliance with U.S.
carrier Continental Airlines, a Dutch newspaper reported Wednesday.
   KLM and alliance partners Northwest Airlines added Alitalia Italian
Airlines Saturday, after the U.S. Department of Transportation granted the Italian airline antitrust immunity so that the airlines could closely align routes and products.
   "The alliance building with Alitalia and Northwest was complex enough," KLM chairman Leo van Wijk was quoted in the newspaper Het Financieele Dgablad on Wednesday. "Now that’s been solved we can continue with Continental."
   KLM formed a joint venture with Northwest, the U.S.’s fourth-largest
carrier, in 1993. The airlines have offered joint transatlantic services.
   KLM also has aligned with Alitalia, Europe’s seventh-largest airline, for passenger and cargo services.