Comair cancels all flights today

[Jagdflieger]

To: Comair pilots

From: JC Lawson, Comair MEC Chairman

Date: December 25, 2004

Re: Comair Shutdown/SBS Failure


It is Christmas morning. This is JC Lawson, MEC Chairman, with a most urgent message to ALL Comair pilots. We have only one important message:



At approximately 8:00 this morning, we were notified by the VP of Flight Operations that the SBS Crew Tracking System has failed.



This is what we know now:

· Comair Airlines is shutdown!

· ALL Comair FLIGHTS for today, Christmas day, and tomorrow, December 26th have been cancelled

· ALL Point-to-Point Comair flights through the end of 2004 have been cancelled

· The Company expects to operate a limited number of revenue flights in and out of CVG

· This is extremely important – Pilots should not contact Crew Scheduling; Crew Scheduling will contact you

· ONLY Crews at outstations should contact Crew Scheduling to make immediate arrangements for you and your crewmembers to get home ASAP; Please designate one single crewmember per crew as the sole communicator for your entire crew

· Pilots scheduled to report for trips between now and the end of the year must not report; Crew Scheduling will contact you

· The Emergency Procedures side letter was invoked by Management this past Thursday and remains in effect, for now, until this Christmas evening. The only Contractual Deviation invoked, at this time, by the Company is that displacement call-in windows may become fluid; not fixed as per the Contract and as published in the Bid Packets



We strongly recommend that pilots take this time to review the Emergency Procedures Letter of Agreement in the back of your Contract, and Section 24.N.8. pertaining to displacement call-in windows. While we have asked that pilots not call Crew Scheduling, IF Crew Scheduling contacts you, they may assign a call-in window that does not comply precisely with the letter of our Contract, as stated above. This is the result of implementing the Emergency Procedures LOA.



Expect updates from your MEC as new information becomes available through the VARS system, the Comair MEC website, and the AMES email system; We will be in continuous contact with Management to work through this dilemma.



This announcement is shocking to all of us and the above stated points are to be followed to the letter.



Capt J.C. Lawson

Comair MEC Chairman

 

[Crossky]

At approximately 8:00 this morning, we were notified by the VP of Flight Operations that the SBS Crew Tracking System has failed.

This is what we know now:

· Comair Airlines is shutdown!

· ALL Comair FLIGHTS for today, Christmas day, and tomorrow, December 26th have been cancelled

· ALL Point-to-Point Comair flights through the end of 2004 have been cancelled

· The Company expects to operate a limited number of revenue flights in and out of CVG

Wow, well Merry Christmas Comair Pilots! That's unfortunate, I sympathize with those affected negatively.

Seriously though, what did airlines do to plan, coordinate, and execute crew scheduling duties before the age of computers? I would guess they had more employees, used lots of paper, pencils, and chalk boards. Don't mean to be arrogant, but it seems a little silly to me that they've cancelled all their flights only because their scheduling computers are down. The pilots, schedulers, and dispatchers know the regs, the phones still work, we have solar powered calculators, and the pilots still have their schedules, on paper at least. You would think the company, like Marines, would "improvise, adapt, and overcome" (Heartbreak Ridge). The payroll and scheduling computers could catch up when the system is fixed.

Did you get what you wanted for Christmas?

 

[Kingairrick]

Wow. That's a new wrinkle....

Alierongirl; Can I pretend to be stuck and non-rev up? I've always wanted to meet you. English chicks turn me on...

 

[Ailerongirl]

TRI, very pretty country. I wish I could stay awhile. Though, I don't believe the invitation extends in my direction.

Hey, if you're in TRI, and need leftovers, it sure does!

Alierongirl; Can I pretend to be stuck and non-rev up? I've always wanted to meet you. English chicks turn me on...

*grin* Sure!


On a serious note...my brother and his fiancee have a Comair flight from here to CVG on Tuesday afternoon......can anyone give me a better idea of when I should call to see if it's been cx?

 

[Snoopy58]

A-girl, go to comair.com, follow their link to "check flight status" which takes you to a Delta page with an explanatory blurb & instructions on how to check for a specific flight.

Or go to http://www.delta.com/travel/before/travel_updates_flight_info/index.jsp

Best of luck to them!

 

[sky37d]

Airlines...

The corporate pilot's job security.

Boy, u got that right.

 

[ShawnC]

Anyone know the phone number of Comair's IT manager? I'm always looking for work.

Heres to hoping that I have no problems with my January trip to Lost Wages.

Then again I am flying United and stopping in Denver.

 

[sky37d]

Anyone know the phone number of Comair's IT manager? I'm always looking for work.

.

Oh, good point. ME TOO!!!