They've done it before. When I upgraded in Spring 2008, they hired 300 FOs in anticipation of getting some of Mesa's CRJ 900s. Soaper came into class and told us we'd all be lineholders by that Christmas. He was right - I was back in the right seat holding a line by Dec. 1st.

With that exception, Comair has almost always done the minimum required and usually waits too long to adjust staffing shortages. It's been years since I've had flying added in the middle of a trip, but it's happened twice in the last three weeks. I checked reserve staffing at 5 am to make sure there were no reserves who could cover it. That day, they had an A7 and an LC1 for JFK, and an LC2 in CVG. Every other reserve was out flying. I'm actually amazed they're not canceling more flights for lack of crews. I heard that on Derby weekend, they had 400 sick calls (for 1500 active crew members). Apparently the Derby and Halloween get the most sick calls, but it still set a record.