Originally Posted by
FlyGuy21
So I'm reading through this... what's the deal here? It looks like end of 2020 DAL may drop Compass, then what? Furlough a bunch of pilots because 34% of flying goes to DAL (
according to the web site)? Don't want to pursue a job if there's a potential for the company to say "bye bye" after a year or 2.
Welcome to the real world. Every contract has an expiration date. The Compass-Delta contract happens to be up for renewal in a little over a year. Basically two possibilities:
1. It WILL be renewed.
2. It WILL NOT be renewed.
Nothing you can do about either of those possibilities. Contracts can also be cancelled out of cycle for a variety of reasons. Even wholly owned regionals (that is, owned by the major airlines whose colors they fly, like Endeavor and Delta and Piedmont and AA) can be sold by the major. (Compass was once wholly owned by Delta, less than ten years ago).
That’s simply reality. Is it LIKELY Compass will close its doors? No, but it COULD happen.
The history of regional airlines is littered with closed regionals, including wholly owned ones (like Comair) that were once THE place to be. For that matter, ever hear of PanAm? TWA? Braniff.
Bankruptcies are endemic in this business. Heck, Republic re-emerged from bankruptcy just a few years ago. Delta was bankrupt about a decade ago (and a lot of Delta pilots lost their pensions in the bankruptcy reorganization).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...tes#Chapter_11
If you want a career with a lot of certainty in it, well that isn’t airline pilot.
Oh, and you are misreading the graph with the 34%. That’s not the proportion of Compass flying that is Delta Connection (which is closer to TWO-thirds) that is the percentage of those pilots leaving Compass who have gone on to work for Delta.
But seriously, if you are looking for a CAREER regional, Compass is a poor fit. The average guy/gal moves on in only about three years.