The Demise of Comair

In this week’s discussion, we are talking about regional airlines.  Regional’s have been around for many years, and are often the talk of speculation.  Known for low wages, short flights, and merges, we have seen many of these come and go.  Most recently, Comair was the latest regional to seize operations. 

According to Wikipedia, Comair was established in March, 1977 and started operations in April of 1977.  It was founded in Cincinnati by Patrick Sowers, Robert Tranter, David Mueller and his father Raymond.  They started scheduled services with two Piper aircraft, and were independently owned until Delta bought the company on October 22, 1999.  In July of 2012, Delta announced that Comair would cease all operations on September 29, 2012.

Why did this happen?  There are many reasons that could have attributed to the downfall:

• Christmas 2004, cancelled all of its flights stranding over 30,000 people.  Snowfall and scheduling software were to blame.  
• Filed for bankruptcy in September, 2005.  Stated that they would cut costs by reducing aircraft, flights and employees.  
• Had the lowest on-time flight percentage of all major U.S. carriers during late 2006.
• At JFK, poor staffing and poor terminal resulted in low DOT ratings.
• In 2008, tied with American Airlines for the lowest on-time performance.  Only 70% of its flights arriving on time.
• In 2009, Delta announced that they would be reducing Comair’s staff by nearly half.
• In 2010, Comair announced that they would reduce their fleet and workforce.  Layoffs were to begin in September, starting with the pilots.

Despite bankruptcies and mergers, regional airlines are still growing.  This table shows some interesting employment statistics, with most hiring more than the previous year (notice how much Comair decreased over the years).  In retrospect, many major airlines are attempting to utilize their own fleet instead of relying on regional carriers.  We may or may not see a decrease in regional operations.

One regional that is currently hiring is ExpressJet.  They are the largest regional airline in the world, with over 4,500 active pilots.  The starting salary for a First Officer position is $23.00 an hour, with a monthly guarantee of 75 hours.  That calculates to $20,700 a year before taxes.