DVA7854
Captain, B747-400
OLP
Joined on October 18 2009
50 State Club
Event Half Century Club
Everett 500 Club
Online Eight Century
Piston Prop Professional
US Capital Club
Flying Colonel
Million Mile Club
DVA Fifteen-Year Anniversary
"Thats gonna leave a mark."
Ontario, CA
1,733 legs, 3,097.5 hours
885 legs,
1,624.9 hours online
840 legs,
1,462.7 hours ACARS
67 legs,
126.8 hours event
|
Posted onPost created on
July 27 2012 21:54 ET by Terrance Copley
|
Delta Air Lines is shutting down its 35-year-old regional carrier Comair at the end of September as it switches to bigger jets. The move will result in a loss of 1,700 jobs.
Delta Air Lines, Inc
Go to your Portfolio »
Comair is down to 290 flights a day. More than 1,000 of its employees are in the Cincinnati and northern Kentucky region, with some 700 of those in Kentucky.
Comair has slashed its fleet, flights and work force in the last seven years. Delta said the smaller regional planes were expensive to fly because they were not as fuel-efficient and cost more to maintain as the fleet aged.
“We just really couldn’t get the cost structure to where we wanted to get it,” said Don Bornhorst, senior vice president of Delta Connection and a former Comair president. “It ultimately was a cost issue; it wasn’t a quality issue with Comair.”
Delta, based in Atlanta, had about 500 of the 50-seat regional jets in 2008 and planned to reduce the number to 125 within two years. Most of that flying will be done by new 76-seat jets, and by the 117-seat Boeing 717s that Delta is leasing from Southwest Airlines.
Delta said on Friday that it had stopped flying 16 of the remaining Comair 50-seaters, and that it would lease the carrier’s other 28 planes to other operators. Mr. Bornhorst said employees had received 60-day termination notices. A small group of employees will remain after the Sept. 29 shutdown to handle details of the closure.
Comair accounts for only about 1 percent of Delta’s flying, so the closure will not result in significant changes to the airline’s network. Delta said it would not mean fewer flights out of Comair’s base at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Comair also has hubs in Detroit and at New York’s Kennedy and La Guardia airports.
Comair was founded in 1977, flying three propeller-driven Piper Navajo aircraft. It started operating as Delta Connection in 1984 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta in 2000.
Before entering bankruptcy protection in September 2005, Comair had more than 7,000 employees and 1,160 flights. Comair and Delta emerged from bankruptcy reorganization in April 2007.
Terrance CopleyCaptain, B747-400
|
|
DVA1038
Captain, B737-800
E-MAIL
Joined on January 12 2003
Century Club
"Celer, Silens, Mortalis"
Summerville, SC USA
169 legs, 1,008.2 hours
56 legs,
288.5 hours online
25 legs,
221.2 hours ACARS
1 legs,
5.0 hours event
|
Posted onPost created on
July 27 2012 22:32 ET by Kevin Cornish
|
