Originally Posted by
On Autopilot
When you say no good news, what was some of the things he shared with you? More furloughs, a slow wind down of Comair? I'm thankful they did at least hire me and the five other pilots in other capacities to work for them, with the thought of moving to the flight side of the house, but if NG4 sees something that will adversly affect that, well..............
Some points of conversation with JB:
Question - What do you see for Comair in the year 2009?
Answer - "I see no good news coming our way this year. My goal for 2009 is to try to keep the company from shrinking any further than it has. I don't foresee bringing anyone back that has or will be furloughed, but will try not to furlough further."
Question - With the furlough of FO's on the lower end of the pay scale, isn't it true that the cost per hour to operate the aircraft is increased (with higher paid crew) and isn't it true that DAL claims that we are already more expensive than other DCI carriers?
Answer - "This is very true, and we are going to have to make further cuts in spending in other areas of the company to make up for this problem."
Question - What do you see happening if Mesa loses the court case with DAL?
Answer - "I really don't see Comair getting any of that flying if Freedom is not around, in fact I see much of that flying being cut all together by DAL."
Question - When Comair got the CRJ in 1993, they were at the leading edge of regional airline technology. Why did Comair never advance technology by getting more 700's, 900's, E-170's, or E190's. Now, with the desire to do away with 50 seaters, Comair is behind every other DCI carrier. In a reply to my letter to RA, he blamed Comair management and ALPA for this. Isn't it DAL that determines who gets the planes now that we are wholly owned?
Answer - "RA said that it was Comair's fault? Hmmm."
Question - CVG seems to be filled with other DCI regionals (skywest, republic, mesa, etc), even though that is Comair's home base. Why is this?
Answer - "DAL has determined to not let any one carrier dominate any one location, so they use several carriers in CVG. The other carriers still operate cheaper than Comair, even after the markup is taken off our costs."
These were some Q&A's, I actually talked to him for around 20 minutes. I also still have copies of the letter to RA and his reply, if anyone is interested. It was previously posted on a different forum.
Final note: JB - "I'm not here to hide anything or blow smoke up anyone's ass. It doesn't look good for us right now, and I will tell you that."