Stifler's Mom said:
And by the way, you did say you were better off before Delta bought you.
Yes, I did say that and I meant every word of it.
We have become bigger since Delta bought us. We would have become bigger with or without Delta. Perhaps not as big as we are now, but certainly more efficient and since our business is about making money, and not about being "bigger", that would be fine. The truth is we were a much better run Company before we were acquired by Delta than we are today. We were also much more profitable, when we were paying our own way and running our own business.
In fact we are still one of the best run regionals in the country and that is in spite of Delta's efforts, rather than because of them. We didn't need "mama Delta" to teach us how to run the airline and we don't now. There are lots of things we've been "forced" to do by Delta that we would never have done before. None of them has been beneficial to Comair and few of them have been beneficial to Delta.
Left to our own devices we were a better run Company. You can believe otherwise if you wish and that's OK with me.
As far as this computer crash is concerned, I say again, it should never have happened and it is our management's fault. There are no excuses and no denials. It's a major screw up and there's no two ways about it. We will fix it.
However, having our airline run by a collection of Delta bottom feeders such as those panned off on ASA would not have prevented it. I will agree with you that ASA is better run today than it was 5 years ago, but plain and simple, Comair is not.
The Delta people that are running ASA and DCI are substantially inferior as managers than the people running Comair, both before the acquisition and since the acquisition (which created DCI). Delta's management doesn't know how to run a "legacy airline" that has existed for 75 years and have run it into the ground. They know far less about how to run a "regional airline".
From my perspective, ASA's problems in ATL do not result from congestion. They are the result of management's failure to deal with the congestion. They are "people" problems (excluding flight crew) and physical plant problems, but principally the former. They don't hire the right people and they don't manage the people that they do hire. That results in atrocious customer service and the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of your "Delta" management team.
AirTran lives and operates out of the same "congested" airport, without the chaos. How is that possible? If Delta managers are so "hot" at running ASA, why haven't they fixed the problem (which has been going on for years and only gets worse)?
I would be willing to bet you that if Delta's DCI managers were not "meddling" Comair would most probably never have gone to ATL, certainly not in such quantity. Secondly, if Delta managers were to permit Comair managers to operate their own station in Atlanta it would be functioning and would not be so adversely affecting the airline's overall performance. Comair management would never permit the things I have personally experienced in ATL both as a pilot and a passenger on ASA.
I certainly don't blame any of that on ASA's cockpit flight crews. I know very well that on most days it would not function at all were it not for the efforts of ASA pilots. But, we're not talking about pilots, we're talking about management, ground personnel, customer service and even flight attendants. The fact is that ASA management sucks and every one of them is a hand-me-down of a Delta flunky.
Thefore, when you try to tell me that ASA is better run by Delta than it was before and that Comair is too, I have to call you on it. Comair is NOT better run by Delta, was much better run before Delta, and I pray every day that we will not wind up being saddled by another bunch of Delta flunkies trying to run this Company. You are welcome to all of them. Hopefully, we'll never see their faces in CVG.
Hopefully we can fix our "problem" sooner than later and get back on track.
Happy New Year to you. Nothing personal about this; hope you understand that.