Comair shutting down

[Baradium]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/comair-cease-operations-123000208.html

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ATLANTA, July 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (DAL) today announced its subsidiary, Comair, Inc. will cease operations after Sept. 29, 2012.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090202/DELTALOGO )

In a memo issued today to the Officers and Directors of Delta Air Lines, Don Bornhorst, Senior Vice President of Delta Connection, said:

"While regional flying has and will remain a key component of Delta's network, customer expectations and the unit costs of regional flying have evolved.  In response, Delta recently announced its plans to reduce the total number of regional jets in its network while adding more mainline flying.  This includes reducing the number of 50-seat regional jets from nearly 350 aircraft to 125 or fewer in the upcoming years.  As a result of this reduction and changes to its customer-focused business strategy, Delta has made the difficult decision to cease Comair's operations."

Ryan Gumm, President of Comair, communicated Delta's decision this morning to Comair employees in a memo, the full text of which is included below.

The discontinuation of Comair's operations will not result in any significant changes to Delta's network, which has enough flexibility to accommodate these changes.  Currently, Comair accounts for approximately one percent of Delta's network capacity.  There will be no disruption to customers and no significant adjustments to Delta's flight schedule or locations served.  All customers who travel on the Delta network, whether on Delta Connection flights or mainline aircraft, can continue to make travel plans with Delta as they have in the past.

Cincinnati will continue to be an important market in Delta's worldwide network.  Over the past several years, working with community leaders, Delta has right-sized capacity at Cincinnati to better match service to local passenger demand.  Cincinnati is now a profitable market for Delta and the city continues to enjoy over 120 peak daily flights, with non-stop service to 49 destinations.  No reductions in the number of Delta flights are planned at Cincinnati as a result of this decision.

To                            All Comair Employees
From                        Ryan Gumm, President
Subject                    Comair to Cease Operations
Date                        July 27, 2012

All,

Today, I am writing to let you know that Delta has made the difficult decision to cease Comair's operations after September 29, 2012.

Delta recently announced its intent to reduce the overall number of 50-seat regional jets in its network from nearly 350 to 125 or fewer in light of the significant changes in the economic and competitive conditions in the airline industry.  We believed this announcement would have a negative impact on Comair because we operate some of the oldest 50-seat aircraft in the Delta Connection fleet, which also have the highest unit cost per flight hour.  And, in fact, Delta has decided to remove the remaining 16 Comair 50-seaters from the Delta network, leaving Comair with only 28 aircraft in scheduled service.  This further reduction of Comair's active fleet will only create higher unit costs, which equates to a business model that is no longer sustainable in this competitive regional environment.

I understand that today's news is very difficult and raises many questions for you and your family.  Human Resources is prepared to directly assist you during this time.  They will post a memo and other documents on the Human Resources Epic page to keep you informed of the assistance available and to help answer many of your questions.  We will also have staff available over the weekend to answer questions if needed.  If after reviewing the information on Epic you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to your departmental leadership as well.

The discontinuation of Comair's operations is in no way a failure or a reflection of your work – it is an unfortunate necessity due to the economic limitations of our aging aircraft, cost structure, the long-term outlook for 50-seat aircraft, and our challenging industry and economy.  The quality of our operations has continued to be outstanding during our lengthy restructuring efforts, and I am honored to have had the opportunity to lead such a committed team.  I am asking that each of you recognize the importance of remaining focused on safety and the job at hand as we continue operations throughout the wind-down period.  Your continued commitment and your dedication to a safe and reliable operation is a testament to the professional team we have built here at Comair.

About Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines serves more than 160 million customers each year. During the past year, Delta was named domestic "Airline of the Year" by the readers of Travel Weekly magazine, was named the "Top Tech-Friendly U.S. Airline" by PCWorld magazine for its innovation in technology and won the Business Travel News Annual Airline Survey. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to nearly 350 destinations in 65 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 700 aircraft. A founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance, Delta participates in the industry's leading trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 13,000 daily flights, with hubs in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Detroit, Memphis, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-LaGuardia, New York-JFK, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City and Tokyo-Narita. The airline's service includes the SkyMiles frequent flier program, a world-class airline loyalty program; the award-winning BusinessElite service; and more than 50 Delta Sky Clubs in airports worldwide. Delta is investing more than $3 billion through 2013 in airport facilities and global products, services and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes, check bags and review flight status at delta.com.

[Rooster Cruiser]

Wow... just WOW!!!  That's at least 400 very experienced pilots out on the street in just a little over a month's time.  Plus Flight Attendents, Mechanics, Line personell, etc etc etc.  All during a recession that simply isn't going to end.

I feel for them, and I hope and pray I can get hired somewhere before all their resumes start overflowing the inboxes!   

RC

[Rooster Cruiser]

Colgan is also shutting down in Sept, according to this article.  http://www.examiner.com/article/colgan-air-closing-down-quicker-than-expected

RC

[Mike]

it's funny how the news keep bringing on "experts" that tell us the recession has ended in 2008, yet you see more and more people on the street....

[Oddball]

Think I've heard that Britain is in a "Double Dip" recession 

[Baradium]

Colgan is also shutting down in Sept, according to this article.  http://www.examiner.com/article/colgan-air-closing-down-quicker-than-expected

RC

Yeah, that's part of the same parent company is me.  We integrated seniority lists just in time for this...   I should hold a job with colgan out, but if we start losing airplanes it won't work so well.


It's not actually a net decrease in flying jobs.  It's a shift.   They move the planes somewhere else and get to put more pilots that are on lower pay rates in the seats.   Skywest is getting most of comair's planes with gojets (I hate those guys) getting some as well.

Republic gets the colgan planes and their union isn't letting our pilots go with the planes and our management did not require it in the transfer like our contract required.

We are actually bleeding pilots like mad, but mostly on the jet side as junior pilots worried about getting furloughed jump ship.  The colgan guys are sticking around hoping for a few months of pay to not fly anything.   

For us it's a net loss of around 800 pilots, not quite 1/3 of our pilot group.

There are lots of jobs right now, but most of them are regional level and entry at that has horrible pay.

[Mike]

It's really sad that all this is still going on.
And it makes me nervous.
The quality of people has to be compromised with these moves with bad pay and such.
Mental stress a factor?
(if you don't know where your next meal is coming from and you living at a crash pad with 8 other pilots, how can you be rested and on top of your game??....)

[Baradium]

It's really sad that all this is still going on.
And it makes me nervous.
The quality of people has to be compromised with these moves with bad pay and such.
Mental stress a factor?
(if you don't know where your next meal is coming from and you living at a crash pad with 8 other pilots, how can you be rested and on top of your game??....)

No one these days really pays attention to what airline is flying them when they buy a ticket, only who is cheapest.  This is especially true when they are buying a ticket on one airline to fly on a regional "partner."

We still operate on the old rest rules too.  I'm sure we will do it until the very day a change is required. 

Really the crash pad part isn't really a big deal.   I'm more rested after I commute in and spend a night in the crash pad than I am when I have an "8 hour" overnight which results in maybe 5 hours in bed if I'm lucky.  When the weather is nice it's not so bad.  The bad times are when you do it after a day of flying around thunderstorms and landing in nasty winds and weather down to minimums all day and have a similiar day following.

[Baradium]

(if you don't know where your next meal is coming from and you living at a crash pad with 8 other pilots, how can you be rested and on top of your game??....)

To be fair, I do generally know where my next meal is coming from, generally McDonalds or whatever else is cheap and nearby.   I do admit though, if it's a shorter overnight and the hotel doesn't provide breakfast... I have to choose between sleep and food and usually sleep wins.