Delta Air Lines is shutting down its regional subsidiary Comair, marking a shift away from small regional jets and changing dynamics in the airline industry.
Comair is one of Delta Connection’s regional feeder carriers that has served Maine and, overall, operates about 235 flights a day to 73 cities, with a significant presence in Cincinnati. Comair flights make up about 1 percent of Delta’s flight capacity, according to Delta.
Atlanta-based Delta said Comair will cease operations Sept. 29 but passengers will not be affected. Other Delta Connection partners will operate any Delta Connection flights scheduled to be flown by Comair after that date.
Delta will retire Comair’s 16 50-seat regional jets. It will lease the other 28 regional jets in Comair’s fleet to other Delta Connection carriers, according to Delta spokeswoman Kristin Baur.
Comair is based in Erlanger, Ky., near Cincinnati.
The company’s roughly 1,700 employees will be laid off, according to Baur. Non-union employees will get severance and job placement help, and the company will negotiate with unions representing the roughly 800 pilots, 450 flight attendants and 225 mechanics on separation benefits.
On the Comair flight attendants union website, a union leader posted a note on the Delta decision, adding, “My heart is broken; I grieve with each of you.” Delta had put Comair up for sale years ago, finding no buyers. Comair operates flights in the Midwest and East Coast, including Cincinnati, New York, Detroit, Memphis, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta.
Founded in Cincinnati in 1977, Comair became a Delta Connection carrier in 1984, with Delta soon after taking a partial ownership share. The carrier was a financial star of the burgeoning regional industry and in the 1990s became a launch customer for the 50-passenger Canadair regional jet. Comair gradually expanded at the Cincinnati airport.
Delta acquired all of Comair for about $2 billion in 2000, in a move to absorb its profits and gain full control of its regional jet fleet.
A tragic chapter in Comair’s history came in 2006, when a Comair flight crashed while attempting to take off from the wrong runway at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, killing 49 people.
Meanwhile, 50-seat jets were becoming economically less attractive to airlines and disliked by passengers in favor of newer, larger jets that are more fuel-efficient and less cramped. Delta Connection once used about 500 of the 50-seat regional jets but has begun retiring them in recent years.
Amid that backdrop and economy-related flight cuts, Comair had been gradually shrinking along with the Cincinnati hub. The hub once had more than 600 daily departures and now has about 120.
Comair operates some of the oldest 50-seat regional jets in the Delta Connection fleet, according to a memo from Comair president Ryan Gumm to employees. He called the decision to cease operations “an unfortunate necessity due to the economic limitations of our aging aircraft, cost structure, the long-term outlook for 50-seat aircraft, and our challenging industry and economy.”
The decision comes as Delta plans to reduce its fleet of 50-seat regional jets from nearly 350 today to 125, enabled by a recently approved pilot labor contract and a deal to lease from rival Southwest Airlines all of the Boeing 717s Southwest inherited through its acquisition of AirTran Airways.
(c)2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.)
Distributed by MCT Information Services
I can’t seem to follow the bouncing ball in this story… will a Delta regional still service Maine?
The answer is far simpler than it may first not seem to appear. If one wishes to fly out of Bangor on a Delta pre-owned (now leased) and altered schedule (yet to be determined)perhaps, only if the destination is currently not served by another competing and imminently bankrupt carrier that has yet to find reliable investors.
I’d drive.
thank for clearing it up!
It would appear that’s the case. The FAA doesn’t allow carriers to leave before finding a replacement offering the same service and schedule.
This is not true. The FAA will not let a carrier leave if they have bid for the Essential Air Service (like in Bar Harbor), Bangor does not qualify for EAS and a carrier can leave at any time. They would simply cancel the service, offer customers two options: alternate travel or a refund.
Thanks for the clarification. I stand corrected.
Delta will operate out of Maine as Delta Airlines, not Comair.
Delta has been using other Delta connection carriers besides Comair on their service to Bangor for quite a while. Service to Bangor won’t be affected at all except that there’s a possibility that eventually we might once again see a “real Delta jet,” after the 717’s mentioned in the story are transferred to Delta from Southwest, but at this point that’s just a possibility.
I believe it is GoJet and/or Express Jet that services Delta connections to LGA and DTW from Bangor. It used to be Chautauqua, they change names daily it seems.
You’re right – Delta operates LGA flights with GoJet, Chautauqua and Expressjet. DTW is operated by Comair and Expressjet.
The leased 717 is scheduled to make an appearance in the Bangor market.
Perhaps a newer fleet with larger planes will help the Bangor market.
Perhaps, but airlines are unlikely to make any substantial investment of larger equipment in a marginal economic market. The 717 that Mr. Ramsey speaks of is about the extent of it–if and when they give it atry on the schedule and it is still a baby DC-9 variant.
The airline activity in Maine has shifted to Portland. We don’t even bother with Bangor anymore. It’s a nice airport and all, but the flights are very limited and there is absolutely no backup if anything is delayed or goes wrong–which is quite often. It is far more cost and time efficient to go to Portland to begin with. If your flight is delayed or there are problems it is far easier to rebook out of Portland. Why put up with Bangor’s now infamous unreliability in the first place when a reliable airport with gobs of service is only an hour and forty five minutes down the highway?
Also, don’t forget the frequent service to Boston from Augusta, Rockland and Bar Harbor-Trenton–excellent connections and Boston is a much better airport than it was 10 years ago. The Augusta and Rockland service uses the JetBlue terminal and you can book your flight as a JetBlue flight. My son-in-law uses it a lot.
The “killer app” for Maine is the imminent Southwest merger service at Portland. High frequency flights to BWI with tons of connectivy beyond BWI will certainly drive the continued shift to Portland.
“It’s a nice airport and all, but the flights are very limited and there is absolutely no backup if anything is delayed or goes wrong–which is quite often.”
I don’t believe this comment to be true at all.
Do you have any numbers to back this up or are you just shooting the place down because you like to drive south?
Just flew out this week, our flight was over an hour and a half delayed. There was absolutely no updates from delta at all, I had to keep up with the delay with my smartphone, because the flight completely disappeared from the monitors. If this flight had been cancelled there was only one other Delta option that day, and I’m sure that there would have been a very slim chance of anyone getting on it, since they try to book full, and there were close to 100 people on our flight (a larger than normal regional jet). With such limited flights leaving BGR, there is little hope of getting out that day if something goes wrong.
Or next leg was cancelled, but luckily being Laguardia, we were rebooked before we even arrived, and got home the same day.
If I hadn’t gotten a good price to BGR, I would have not flown in there, it is too risky. I suggest if flying out, to get an early morning flight, since the flight will be originating there and there is much less chance of delay or cancellation. Lesson learned.
My comments are addressed to the airline industry in general:
Except that it would add to the already impossible to support welfare state; I don’t care if every one of the millions of people in the airline industry find themselves unemployed tomorrow. As a group, they are the most disinterested lot of people ever to enter the customer service industry. Delta is just one. They all have the careless attitude of someone (whose paycheck depends on the customer) who literally thinks the customer is an nuisance. Given the option to drive instead of fly, I will drive, even if the duration is 3X the time it would take me to fly. If you want a taste of this, just try your luck in Philly, or Bangor if a flight is delayed.
I have to agree with everything you have written here. it doesn’t even matter which airport you are at. I think the one thing most people don’t understand about this though is that the Airport is only a landlord for the property and has no control over Airline employees or the airline business.
Yes, I do. According to the FlightAware.com statistics and the DOT’s own delay information, which is publicly available on the Department of Transportation’s web site, Bangor’s Laguardia and Philadelphia flights are frequently significantly delayed and/or cancelled. Detroit less so, though the connecting schedule is screwy.
Although the delays and cancellations are not Bangor’s fault, they are compounded by the fact that Bangor’s core service lacks diversity in service points as well as enough frequency in service to accommodate everyone in the case of a cancellation or delay.
From an anecdotal standpoint I’m also happy to relate my own actual experience with Bangor, which compares to many other professionals attempting to fly from Bangor. Last year I flew 22 times for business. Of those 22 trips, 12 were booked from Bangor. Of the 12 trips, ony one went without a significant delay or outright cancellation due to weather or congestion in the NYC / Philly region. On all the cancellations I was rebooked from either Bar Harbor Trenton or Portland–which is where I should of gone in the first place.
This year I have flown only 7 trips to date. All from Portland. With the exception of one, all went without a hitch. On the one delay I was immediately rebooked on another carrier and left withing a half hour of my original scheduled departure time. Consider me a convert.
Again, don’t get me wrong–I like the Bangor Airport. However, I need some modicum of reliability and redundancy for business travel by air, hence I use Portland, which is one hour and 42 minutes from my driveway. Lots of covered parking, too, which is really nice in the winter. JetBlue’s PWM service is fantastic and I fully expect SWA to be exceptional, too.
For years the Bangor airport suffered from poor leadership and the departure of many carriers and routes. Perhaps under new, enlightened leadership it will move forward again. One can certainly hope.
So New York and Philly and that whole corridor are the reasons for delays and not anything the Bangor Airport has done or isn’t doing. You talk about the poor management next. What did the previous management not do that could have made a difference in a period of time when some other small airports with similar population bases never survived at all? At least BGR managed to survive the slow times and I would say that is to the credit of the previous management.
Not quite. As a retired site selection expert, I note that my experience is that attracting and retaining air service is a competitive process and more than just economics are considered. You will note that when the American Eagle regional jet service and maintenance base were relocated from Bangor to Michigan (resulting in loss of all of Bangor’s Boston service) the net result of the service reallocation included cities in the routing that were far, far smaller than Bangor. Ever wonder why?
The same thing happened on the Continental reallocation and again on the cessation of the Delta reginal subsidiary services, notably the Atlanta flight. The Delta regional sectors went to Portland. The airport was also uncompetitive in its oft stated goal of attracting service to Cananda, losing out to Portland in matter. The biggest failure to date was the lack of response to inquiries from JetBlue, which ultimately went with a feeder service from Augusta and Rockland. There were others, but you likely get the point.
At the end of the day, relationships play a not insiginificant role in where an airline places its assets. While economics play a major role, so doesn’t the feeling an airline gets for the intangibles of airline route decisions. Those intangibles involve people, people that have to make decisions that affect the bottom lines of their respective companies in the business.
Politely put, prior management did not enjoy the favor of key people at key airlines due to a series of missteps. Other airports were quick to exploit those missteps and co-opted service opportunities. Hopefully the new management at BIA will agressively seek return of Boston feeder service and direct flights to Atlanta. More telling is the comment of my neighbor, who works at the airport, that “morale is 110% better” with recent changes at BIA. That about says it all and one could wager that BIA is about to do great things. Better late than never.
In the interim, however, I like to get where I’m going and the best bet in town at present is driving to Augusta for the JetBlue connection to Boston or to Portland for connectivity, reliability and price.
It would be nice to see a budget airline come into Bangor like Jet Blue or Southwest
There are larger, more “stable” markets that lack one or both of those airlines. We’d be a long way off before either of those show up. Bangor is pretty lucky to have Allegiant.
whenever a small airline flies under the name of a big air line like Delta.each and every flight should guarantee the same high level of quality control on the equipment used and the qualifications and caliber of people flying the aircraft.
That’s the ball we as the flying public want to keep our eye on.
I have a close friend who is a pilot for Delta..one of the top captains and one of their most highly trained..he refuses to fly Deltas little regional carriers.for safety reasons.
The regionals have the same safety requirements as the “mainline” jets. They also have to meet quality metrics. I’ve been on regional jets that are newer and nicer than large jets. Regional carriers are just as safe as mainline.
and your source.credentials for making this claim? Wahy about the investigatio of Comair’s Buffalo crash..for instance..tons revelaed about the gap between regionals safety records and qaifications as compared to what supposedly governs the big corporate names they carry.
I gave my source.. a high level very senior pilot for Delat. Annd now additionally the extesive investigative reporting and finndings of the Comair Buffalo crash.
What are your sources ad references?
First, Comair was not the airline that crashed in Buffalo it was Colgan.
Looking at the fatal crashes by carriers there have been two regional flights that had a hull loss and fatalities in the US Post 9/11 (a Comair flight in KY and the Colgan Flight in NY), and one hull loss fatal flight for large US Carriers, that resulted in the loss of more lives (the AA Flight that crashed in Flushing, NY in 2001). There have been more incidents by mainline carriers skimping out on their safety requirements (you can tell by the volume of fines that the FAA has levied against them this year, which Delta alone has over $1 million proposed against them this year).
As for your source, since you did not actually name them, or any statistics, other than a “high level very senior pilot at Delta”, which honestly means nothing for your argument.
yes tx..i stand corrected it was colgan in buffalo and comair in on Ky..
I am only relying what a high level very experienced pilot told me and practices himself..his wife too who is a senior pito for another major a carrier on international flights.
The level of training of the pilots in the Colgan crash and the voice recorder information were shocking to me as a passenger who has no choice but to rely on puddle jumpers for decades to get where I need to get. The details on that crash were alarming.
I gather you either work for a regional carrier or own one..
This must be more of that, “Hope and Change” they were talking about.