As much as we all like to think that the world revolves around pilots, it simply does not. The decision to shut down Comair was made by people in ATL who look at the cost and profitability in an operation. The only pilots that they might know would be the ones flying their corporate jets. These people have never heard of JC or Corey and they don't care about any memos regarding Delta furloughs.
Comair has always been on the leading edge of the regional industry and this case is no different. Colgan is closing, Pinnacle and Eagle are going to be destroyed and it won't have anything to do with the pilots. It is economics, plain and simple; and the disparity in pilot costs between competitors is meaningless to even discuss.
BTW, Bugsmasher Plus, make sure you never apply to my airline. I never want to count on someone like you to help improve my quality of life or compensation. You would do just fine at a non-union airline where management can show you how worthless they really think you are.
You are right, the decision was made by those in ATL. The strike brought with it a lot of unintended consequences that changed the face of regional arilines and with it the competitive structure that once made Comair the envy of the industry.
Hub protection (Comair - CVG, ASA-ATL etc) vanished with the strike. You don't think that affected profitability? Scope clauses that limited growth and a union that over and over again proved that it was not capable of working with the company to stay competitive.
The most important thing that was lost at Comair after the strike was the culture and with it was the bottom line. The company was never again competitive and chosen to lead the industry. Comair over and over again did things with the RJ that nobody else could prior to the strike. All that vanished.
To address your last statement... myself, like most Comair management made the decision to move on many years ago. We were all committed to making the best decisions possible for the pilot group, the non pilot employees and the company as a whole. The culture that was learned stayed within all of us and the desire to support and succeed to the best of our ability never changed. I don't know where you but I can assure you that one of us is probably on the management team with oversight of a function that improves your quality of life every day.
Don't misunderstand me, I was there when all of this happened and watched it all unfold. I felt the sting of the strike, saw the culture change and suffered the consequences after. My heart goes out to all those affected, many of them good friends that I still stay in touch with, along with many of them I still work beside today. All Comair employees, past and present feel heartache at the closure of the company. It is like losing a close friend.
However, for every failure there is a turning point where you know that it all could have been avoided. JC and Corey made decisions that destroyed what Ray and his father started. What could have been is over now, where the sky was once the limit it is soon to be nothing but a footnote in history.
The airline that introduced the regional jet to the industry, that forever changed the image of what a small commuter airplane was (no props), that was able to operate from coast to coast as an airline, operate to locations and distance previously unheard of as a commuter with a culture second to none is soon to be no more.
As one who lived it, the two names most associated with the demise of the greatest regional airline ever will be JC and Corey.
