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Continental spokesman Dave Messing said the airline is still confident that the Transportation Department will approve its request. Messing said Continental needs the approval to compete fairly with airlines that already have antitrust immunity.

"In this economic crisis, it is more important than ever for the U.S. government not to hamper our industry's and company's efforts to remain competitive and serve our consumers and communities," he said.

The Justice Department said the benefits that Continental claimed from antitrust immunity could be achieved without immunity. It cautioned that immunity for Continental and United, the No. 3 U.S. carrier, to work more closely could hurt competition on U.S.-Beijing routes and "raises significant concerns" about hurting competition within the United States.

The department also said letting Continental cooperate with Air Canada and European SkyTeam members could leave consumers with fewer choices and higher fares on travel between the U.S. and Canada and on some routes to Europe, including New York-Geneva and Chicago-Frankfurt.

Robert Doyle, an antitrust attorney in Washington, said the DOJ's concerns were not surprising, given the broad sweep of Continental's immunity request. Even though the final decision rests with the Transportation Department, he said Attorney General Eric Holder "has a lot of weight" to influence the outcome.

"It seems reasonable for DOJ to say (the Continental request) is too broad," Doyle said. "It's open-ended immunity for any deal they decide to do. We don't know what deals or acquisitions or affiliations they are considering."

The Justice Department's opposition to immunity for Continental could affect AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, which wants immunity to work closely with British Airways and Spain's Iberia on trans-Atlantic routes. American, BA and Iberia belong to an alliance called oneworld.