Delta to view Comair bid

[SkyNation]

my hope is that Comair retains all their flying.


Delta to view Comair bid

Source: Excerpt from Cincinnati Enquirer

Eight days from now, Comair will submit a bid critical to its future.

Depending on how corporate parent Delta Air Lines views the bid, the Erlanger-based regional airline could ultimately see its payroll of 6,500 chopped by an estimated 850 pilot and flight attendant jobs - or boosted by 1,100 positions.

Delta is already sifting through bids submitting by other regional airlines seeking to feed passenger traffic to its mainline operations. Delta gave its subsidiary a two-week extension until Oct. 2 following the crash of Flight 5191 in Lexington.

While the crash will likely lead to settlements paid by insurers, Delta's need for lower operating costs poses a bigger threat to Comair. After a year in Chapter 11, the Atlanta-based carrier has focused its restructuring efforts on lowering its regional flying costs.
Managers at Comair, which followed Delta into bankruptcy, say the two starkly different paths for the company depend on their ability to win concessions from their three unions.
If they succeed, Comair will be able to submit a more competitive bid to Delta and possibly win new business. If they fail, the company fails, it will likely see current aircraft assigned to cheaper contractors and Comair will also shed jobs
.
In a memo to his employees just after the bid announcement, Comair president Don Bornhorst urged the unions to help submit a competitive bid.

"I realize people question Delta's decision to put our flying out for bid, especially because we are a wholly owned subsidiary," he wrote. "Whether we like it or not, we have to compete just as effectively on costs and quality as every other carrier Delta could consider for regional flying."

In August, Delta announced it was seeking new bids to fly 93 aircraft already being flown as well as for 50 future aircraft. Of the existing regional aircraft up for grabs, 42 of Comair's jets are seen as in play. Comair operates 27 70-seat jets that employ 22 crew apiece and about 15 50-seaters that employ about 17 apiece.

 

[ReverseSensing]

Was this a news article or an editorial? That's some pretty biased reporting if this was a "news" piece. Sounds more like a Comair management press release.

 

[ex j-41]

One Contract for all airlines would put an end to this maddness.

 

[regionaltard]

Was this a news article or an editorial? That's some pretty biased reporting if this was a "news" piece. Sounds more like a Comair management press release.

A corporation using the local media as a tool to strike fear in the hearts of its employees? STFU. Next thing you're going to tell us is that the rich guys who run the airline cooked this up with the rich guys who own the newspaper over a round of golf.......

 

[tired_pilot]

What a crock, Delta to view Comair Bid!

Delta owns COMAIR!!!!!

 

[ReverseSensing]

Next thing you're going to tell us is that the rich guys who run the airline cooked this up with the rich guys who own the newspaper over a round of golf.......

Come on...I was born at night, but it wasn't last night. This sort of thing doesn't really happen. That's just Hollywood.

 

[ReverseSensing]

What a crock, Delta to view Comair Bid!

Delta owns COMAIR!!!!!

And being "owned" by Delta means everything. After all, "Good Goes Around."

 

[Dave Benjamin]

I think CMR will keep or maybe even pick up additional flying. DAL is realizing their mistake of giving flying away to the low end of the market. I bet their NY passengers are really enjoying those 1900's that were supposed to have been Dash 8's. There's an old saying we had in the construction industy.

The bitterness of poor quality outlasts the sweetness of a cheap price.

The legacy carriers are doing better financially and if they plan to retain customers they will have to reassign flying to carriers that offer a superior product. That might have been the plan all along. Bring in a company like Mesa to shake things up and drive some cost concessions and once they get some relief they can throw Mesa to the curb so their pax can enjoy more comfort and better reliability. As airline economics improve I think we'll see more flying shifted away from the cheap lift. In the long run it's probably cheaper to use carriers that actually get people to their destination nearly 100% of the time than it is to piss off the people providing revenue and have the additional expense of hotels and rebooking.

 

[regionaltard]

There's an old saying we had in the construction industy.

The bitterness of poor quality outlasts the sweetness of a cheap price.

The legacy carriers are doing better financially and if they plan to retain customers they will have to reassign flying to carriers that offer a superior product.

My grandad, a builder of museum-quality furniture, always said that cheap tools were a luxury that no craftsman could afford.

Sounds like Frontier's looking for something between Playskool (Mesa) and Snap-On (Horizon). My guess is that Ma Delta is too strung out to pass up another hit on the concession crack pipe, and is still in no mood to forgive Comair for the colossal ass-whipping they administered a few years back. SkyWest can grow exponentially very quickly by simply transferring ASA assets, and we already know that their employees will do whatever it takes to "grow." My money's on them, with a few scraps thrown to Shaniqua consistent with the "not too many eggs in one basket" lesson Delta learned the hard way.

 

[CrownandCoke]

The bitterness of poor quality outlasts the sweetness of a cheap price.

mind if I use this as a quote???

 

[Dave Benjamin]

mind if I use this as a quote???

Go for it. It's an old saying and not copyrighted. And it's true to boot.

 

[Dave Benjamin]

My grandad, a builder of museum-quality furniture, always said that cheap tools were a luxury that no craftsman could afford.

My guess is that Ma Delta is too strung out to pass up another hit on the concession crack pipe, and is still in no mood to forgive Comair for the colossal ass-whipping they administered a few years back. SkyWest can grow exponentially very quickly by simply transferring ASA assets, and we already know that their employees will do whatever it takes to "grow." My money's on them, with a few scraps thrown to Shaniqua consistent with the "not too many eggs in one basket" lesson Delta learned the hard way.

I always like to visit the shop of guys like your Granddad. I've got a lot of respect and admiration for craftsmen like that. A former neighbor of mine builds high end custom furniture. He also built a gorgeous little yacht tender. His work is literally a form of art. I wish I had 10% of his talent.

We won't know for a little while who if either one of us has made an accurate prediction. From what we've seen here on Flightinfo SKYW has been hiring like crazy. A look at www.skywest.com supports that as well. We don't know if SkyWest has bid on that flying and we also don't know how much of it they are in a position to accept. Only so many pilots can be trained at a time. Classroom space, sim slots, availability of IP's / check airmen all factor into the growth. Even if DAL wanted to give all of the additional flying to SKYW there's probably a limit on how much is realistic. Giving the flying to SkyWest would be consistent with my prediction that DAL has a newfound interest in quality. SKYW is a top quality provider of lift according to DOT reports.

CMR is a quality provider as well. Hopefully they are able to hang on grow a bit after the bid results are announced.

 

[cargojunkie]

the bk judge will look at the lowest price.. look at awac and united 30 years of service gone. comair can't compete....

 

[DrewBlows]

Was this a news article or an editorial? That's some pretty biased reporting if this was a "news" piece. Sounds more like a Comair management press release.

I read the entire article and thought the same thing. No where in the article did it mention that the unions have proposals on the table that the company refuses to accepts or counter-proposal. No union officials were quoted. This article pretty much quotes the propaganda I find in my v-file every other day.

 

[dooork]

One Contract for all airlines would put an end to this maddness.

How about one pay rate for every job!!!!!! A Doctor would make the same as a plumber. Commi.

 

[dooork]

I think CMR will keep or maybe even pick up additional flying. DAL is realizing their mistake of giving flying away to the low end of the market. I bet their NY passengers are really enjoying those 1900's that were supposed to have been Dash 8's. There's an old saying we had in the construction industy.

The bitterness of poor quality outlasts the sweetness of a cheap price.

The legacy carriers are doing better financially and if they plan to retain customers they will have to reassign flying to carriers that offer a superior product. That might have been the plan all along. Bring in a company like Mesa to shake things up and drive some cost concessions and once they get some relief they can throw Mesa to the curb so their pax can enjoy more comfort and better reliability. As airline economics improve I think we'll see more flying shifted away from the cheap lift. In the long run it's probably cheaper to use carriers that actually get people to their destination nearly 100% of the time than it is to piss off the people providing revenue and have the additional expense of hotels and rebooking.

You must be kidding me. How can say that after recent events? Don't forget.

 

[miles otoole]

The bitterness of poor quality outlasts the sweetness of a cheap price.

So, you're saying that a higher cost product translates to a higher quality product? Is Comair's RJ operation really any better than Mesa's in the eyes of the customer? I'd bet that most don't notice any difference.

 

[milehye]

Sorry to say - but using "Quality" as a reason Delta will give us flying is a joke. The comment above is right - the customers getting on these airplanes dont have a clue about subsidiaries, parent companies, and RFPs for that matter. I would be surprised if they noticed the paint job on the side that said what "version" of Delta is was.

Have you been on a Delta flight recently? To say the quality of customer service a passenger recieves is going down hill is an understatement - there is none.

I wish quality was a reason for giving us back our flying. But then again, I think being owned by a company should mean something too... But it DOESNT

 

[EMB170Pilot]

I think CMR will keep or maybe even pick up additional flying. DAL is realizing their mistake of giving flying away to the low end of the market. I bet their NY passengers are really enjoying those 1900's that were supposed to have been Dash 8's. There's an old saying we had in the construction industy.

The bitterness of poor quality outlasts the sweetness of a cheap price.

The Dash 8's are being replaced by 170s. I dont think the paxs will be complaining!

 

[wanagethi]

It doesn't matter about quality, when the creditor committee looks at this, chitaco and mesa will low ball everyone, and skywest will pick up their scraps

 

[ReverseSensing]

There are two kinds of quality service being talked about here: The customer service the passengers get (on average, they don't care as long as the ticket's cheap), and completion/reliability/on-time/baggage.

Ma Delta has probably given up on the good customer service, but I bet she'd like to have feed that is reasonably reliable on the completion/reliability/on-time/baggage front.

To expand on the crack whore analogy: Ma Delta's completely let her looks go and could care less, but if her dealer don't show up on time with the "rocks" she's one pissed off biznitch.

 

[regionaltard]

To expand on the crack whore analogy: Ma Delta's completely let her looks go and could care less, but if her dealer don't show up on time with the "rocks" she's one pissed off biznitch.

Ma Delta-that girl's so fine......

 

[XPOO]

You shouldn't make fun of ATLCrashPad's momma like that.

 

[ReverseSensing]

Ma Delta-that girl's so fine......

Holy crap! That's one Foxy Lady!

 

[TNPILOT]

It doesn't matter about quality, when the creditor committee looks at this, chitaco and mesa will low ball everyone, and skywest will pick up their scraps

Yep. Look at CAL and XJT. If quality was so important why bring in CHQ. And CAL is in far better shape than DAL. Some at XJT once used the argument of quality to reason that CAL wouldn't dump us and bring is another carrier. I never bought into it, and now my coworkers who did are left wondering what happened when it was obvious to everone else.

 

[FDJ2]

Have you been on a Delta flight recently? To say the quality of customer service a passenger recieves is going down hill is an understatement - there is none.

JD Powers disagrees. DAL has some of the best customer satisfaction ratings in the industry.

http://www.jdpower.com/travel/ratings/airlines/indexratings.asp?v1=Network

 

[VeeOne]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a panel in place to prohibit the takeover of another carriers regional routes?

Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see with the bid on Comair's flying. Is Delta REALLY going to take that kind of revenue out of their own pocket. Remember, their payment of regional flying via Comair goes right back into their own pocket. It's just a strong arm tactic to get everyone over there to comply with the paycuts and renegotiate lower pay....IMHO.

 

[rickair7777]

A glimmer of hope...word in mesa-land is that DAL has REALLY F-ing had it with mesa's crap and total failure to perform (Dash8's???). I'm cautiously optimistic that in his quest for rock-bottom JO has actually descended below it! We'll find out soon enough...

 

[WSurf]

A glimmer of hope...word in mesa-land is that DAL has REALLY F-ing had it with mesa's crap and total failure to perform (Dash8's???). I'm cautiously optimistic that in his quest for rock-bottom JO has actually descended below it! We'll find out soon enough...

Eventually someone will make a hamburger (Mesa) so cheap, that nobody will buy it!

 

[VeeOne]

A glimmer of hope...word in mesa-land is that DAL has REALLY F-ing had it with mesa's crap and total failure to perform (Dash8's???). I'm cautiously optimistic that in his quest for rock-bottom JO has actually descended below it! We'll find out soon enough...

I think this happened once at USAirways. Mesa would delay a flight until USAirways would cancel it. As per their contract, if Mesa cancelled (mechanical or otherwise) no money. If Mainline USAirways cancelled the flight, then Mesa didn't have to fly it and got paid anyway. This is what I've heard anyways- lol