Continental Airlines said today it would sever its unprofitable Des Moines to New York route, effective Nov. 1. It was the only non-stop route between Central Iowa and the Big Apple.

The airline instituted the two Continental Express flights daily between Des Moines and Newark, N.J.’s Newark Liberty International Airport about a year ago. The air carrier’s twice-daily service from Des Moines to Houston will continue, according to Dave Messing, a spokesman, who called that route “highly sustainable.”

Continental said it was surprised that it was unable to attract more passengers on the New York route in the past year.

In that time, “You would naturally expect boardings to increase,” Messing said. “It just never reached the level that we wanted it to to be profitable.”

The airline is discontinuing the service even as it swung to a second-quarter operating profit of $238 million from a year-ago loss of $115 million.

Central Iowa business leaders said Continental may not have done enough to promote the service. Continental President Lawrence Kellner made at least two personal visits to local businesses and travel agents to make greater use of the service.

“There may not have been enough awareness about how Newark fits into New York,” said Suku Radia, chief financial officer at Meredith Corp. and a former chairman of the Greater Des Moines Partnership. Meredith is one of the biggest users of Continental’s Des Moines to Newark route. “When Continental’s president met with me, I told him that they needed to get the message across that Newark was only 45 minutes to Midtown [Manhattan].”

Continental, the nation’s fifth-largest air carrier, is the second airline in recent years to fail at sustaining a nonstop route between Des Moines and New York. In 1999, Access Air folded after trying similar flights between the two cities.

When Continental announced the Des Moines to Newark flights in April 2002, there was optimism that it could make the route profitable because it planned to use smaller and more efficient aircraft than Access has used.

“We’re saddened to lose service like that,” said Roy Criss, an airport spokesman. “Actually, we’re a bit surprised that the air travelers of Central Iowa didn’t respond better in utilizing that direct flight.”

Messing said the company may reinstate service if the airline market improves overall.