Okay after digging a little, I have found that the lease terms vary per aircraft. So these lease returns aren't in sequential tail# order. There is actually 7 aircraft waiting to be returned; 7141, 7352, 7420, 7428, 7802, 7809, and 7816. 7141 was delivered in 1996 and 7816 was delivered in 2003. 7420 and 7428 are off to VCV to be stored tomorrow.

 

Just to answer some Mesaba questions. Richard Anderson was long gone at UNited Health Care, post NWA when both XJ and NWA entered Ch11. RA steered the airline through it's entire transformation stopping short of labor. He then left it to the henchman Steenland to pull the trigger for Ch11 and the rest is history. I didn't want to believe that is was the plan all along to join these two airlines when they both filed for Ch11 on the same day (DL and NW). Now, all the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into place and it seems that it was far more than coincidence.

This holdings company is totally legit. It all started earlier this year when one day half the people in our GO were wearing new badges. We all thought that we were getting new ones. Upon further investigation, low and behold they all worked for MCHoldings (Mesaba COmpass holdings). Mesaba recently finished expanding their GO and right next door are the brand new offices for MCH. While their offices are separate, their employees spend a lot of time in the Mesaba side of the building.

MCH deals with the accounting, IT, payroll, finance and many other back of the house dealings for both Mesaba and Compass. The Compass training is even held in the Mesaba training center. I guess we should call it the MCH training center maybe. It only makes sense for Comair to fall under this umbrella as well. In the end, MCH would run this for all 3 wholly owned airlines.

Again - best of luck to all of you at Comair.

 

Do comair pilots ferry these aircraft or is it pilots from the lease company? Funny how some of the newest aircraft are leaving our fleet..and 7011 keeps on truckin.

 

The new ones have the most expensive leases on them, so that is why they are going back so quick.

Keep a close eye on that Mesaba MTC hanger after the first of the year.

 

Do we (Delta really) actually OWN any, or will they just eventually return them all?

 

so.... Im sitting in CVG ops and there is a nice table set up next to me cover in honey baked ham sandwiches and chips. The sign next to all the food is the kicker though. "We are trying to raise moral so we are providing the pilot group with a honey baked ham lunch and dessert." So we got good news and bad news. Good news is there is free lunch in ops!!!(muttered under their breath were downgrading 75 and furloughing 120)

 

They probably used left over certificates from last year to pay for it.

 

Please tell me you are joking!

 

Hey, I'm about to get F'd, but a ham sandwich sure would make me happy.

Oh wait, I'm JFK based where we are lucky to get a 3 buck coupon to the cafeteria in the basement.

Oh wait... I'm still out of a job come January.

Darn.

 

I wish I was... But hey i just had free lunch im ecstatic now!! GO COMAIR!!