Originally Posted by irrelevant

My initial thought is this is a bad thing for Comair. Here's why...

Every former and currently furloughed pilot at Comair found themselves in that position because Delta had airline service agreements in place with non-wholly owned regional "partners"...contracts that very likely specified minimum utilization guarantees for every airline under contract with Delta.

After Delta exited bankruptcy (entered during a time of economic growth, b.t.w.), there was only one wholly owned regional carrier under Delta's direct control...Comair. ASA had been sold to Skywest by this time.

When the need to cut capacity in regional lift struck, initially Delta only had Comair to target. Those 900's that were promised to just about every carrier operating under the DCI brand...the reason Comair went on a hiring binge in 2007 - just to furlough three months later...ultimately went to Skywest/ASA simply because they offered to give Delta some relief on the 50-seat side of their contract in exchange for those airframes.

For a short time, Delta owned three regionals...Comair, Mesaba, and Compass. This took some pressure off Comair, which for a while served as basically the reserve airline for the entire DCI system.

With the sale of Mesaba and Compass, Comair becomes the sole "rubber band" in the DCI network again, and unless things improve in the overall economy, Comair will likely find itself expanding and contracting on a regular basis for the forseeable future.

I know you didn't ask for a story SPJ, but it's tough to just state good or bad without a little rationale to support that position...this is the internet after all.