CVG Ramp Operations
 

Not trying to start a Sh*tstorm, but something crossed my mind tonight while pulling into CVG and looking at all of the gates full and only 4 of them being taken up with Delta aircraft. I have yet to hear of Delta laying off a ton of ramp workers, so if there are only a few Delta flights left operating in Cincinnati, what are all of the Delta ramp workers doing. For sure Delta isn't going to pay them to sit around and do nothing.

Anyone think that Delta will get rid of all ramp workers on the Delta side and have the Comair ramp workers work the Delta and Comair flights?

Anyone think that Delta will get rid of the Comair ramp workers and have the Delta ramp workers work all of the Comair and Delta flights in CVG?

I bet comair keeps the station, they're truly entrenched in CVG, and they do a really good job too.

Plus they're probably cheaper.

The comair rampers were some of the best I have ever seen. Really miss working with them after the last few months dealing with philly's finest. CVG also had the hottest ramp girl ive ever seen there. Beautiful burnette with curly hair the most gorgeous smile. the girl was gorgeous.

So do you think Delta might just let all of it's rampers go? I use to work the ramp for Delta and though I think our guys do a great job, I don't see delta shedding it's own for us.

As a former ramper for both, DAL & CMR, at KPBI and KCVG respectively, I would think that Delta would keep their own and probably take the "cream of the crop" from Comair. That being said, exactly what constitutes the "cream of the crop"......I wouldn't know.

For the time that I worked all of the "Color Coded" zones at CVG for Comair, I truly enjoyed it, especially the 4 & 6 o'clock push. Man, there were a/c galore. Int'l flights leaving (DAL); and all those domestics flights. The morning push...the 8-10 o'clock was quite a ballet as well. I really miss it.




atp

I heard that Comair rampers are intentionally sabotaging Pinnacle flights (always making them leave late) in CVG. Anybody else notice? Any truth to this? I haven't seen / noticed this first hand, just a rumor I heard from somebody.

Doubt it. They do a good job for us (Freedom) in CVG, and to them we are one and the same (not comair).

Guess Mesaba is switching to Comair ground crews from Pinnacle soon.

And where would that be? I wasn't aware that we even worked Mesaba aircraft anywhere.

I have experienced it first hand.

Comair doesn't work the Pinnacle flights yet. Pinnacle ground crews are there until Feb 23, then Comair takes over the ground handling. I'm glad because in CVG Pinnacle ground ops are horrible. Not to mention the Pinnacle manager is a complete jerk.

How were you 'sabotaged' and not just a victim of any of the thousands of way a flight can be delayed?

Oh they don't, then who are all those folks wearing Comair uniforms who parked us over on the B concourse. I am guessing that you fly a 200 for Mesaba and park at the A concourse.

I am not going into any specifics on a public forum, but our CEO has been in contact with Comair's CEO at least once a week addressing these issues. I was up in CVG back in Dec, and overheard some gate agents saying that their supervisor just held a meeting and was in an uproar because we had a 100% ontime performance that day, and was basically telling them to do what they could to reduce that. I have been doing this long enough to know what is "normal" and what is not.

Come on. Your serious? I have seen comair employees blow off an inbound comair to park, freedom, CHQ, Pinnacle, ASA and whoever else wants to operate in CVG. I have seen it the other way around too. Those ground crews dont give a **** who you are and I can assure you no supervisor ever had a meeting to tell their people to delay pinnacle flights. The world doesnt revolve around your cockpit. Other things are going on too.

Those gate agents get raise, promotions, demotions and fired based on there on time departures and delays. If you were consistently putting in gate delays on ACARS they would be fired. Comair is begging for reasons to fire employees right now anyways.

Dont forget your tin foil hat. They're out to get you!!

I'm sorry but the only part of CMR that is growing, is on the ramp side. The company has NO REASON to cut the hand off that is helping to feed them. I think this whole thing is a big rumor started by people that think they know what they are talking about. In fact I have seen Comair crews take care of other carrier aircraft and make a CMR departure late even though they could have taken care of us first.

It should also be noted that during the transition to close Concourse C CVG has been a huge mess!

In otherwords, you don't have specifics just rumors and hearsay.

I thought you wouldn't mention specifics?

Are you kidding me? The only thing Comair has left is ground handling, why on earth would they sabotage it? Besides which, I highly doubt you 'overheard' any gate agents discussing anything this ridiculous. As mentioned above, they are rewarded and have job security through ontime departures.

I hear what you are saying as far as our ground service being a good thing, but as I mentioned before, Where are all of the full-time Delta Ramp agents now that half of Delta's flights are gone. I have not heard of any Delta ramp workers being let go. If I were a member of the Comair CVG ramp crew I would be giving 110%, before Delta decides to give my job to a CVG Delta Ramp workforce. Not that I want it to happen, but I think it just might be a very real possibility.

I can't wait for the Pinnacle ground station to be gone from CVG. Anything has to be better than those guys. For the past month (at least) every time we show up in the morning for the first flight of the day they are at least 10-15 minutes late, no paper work, no heat, jet bridge not pulled up to the plane and no inspection forms. They always have excuses. Gate printer is broke, etc. 9-10 times they put the delay on the flight attendant. That's messed up.
I welcome Comair's takeover of the station.

DITTO! I was there yesterday. We got there on time and the gate agent got there the same time we did. We didn't have paperwork in hand until departure time and we didn't start boarding until 10 mins before departure. They put the delay on our flight attendant. We had to fill out an operation issues form.

Any news on TYS??

In cvg there has been a lot of cross training on both DAL and CMR sides. I don't think anyone is losing their job in CVG. After all it's not that easy to get rampers anyways. Most people wash out in the first 30 days.

News out today. Customer service and Ramp positions at Comair, Compass and Mesaba will all be placed under a new holding company based in MSP? Positions will be eliminated, but they plan on dealing with the impact through attrition and voluntary programs.

It will be called Regional Handling Service and it will be based in MSP out of Bulding C. Here is one question from the FAQ sheet....

Q. How many employees will Mesaba/Comair/Compass have after the move?

A. Mesaba will go from 4,300 to 2,800 employees. Comair will go from 5,700 to 3,100 employees. The impact to Compass is minimal.

They posted some information on mymesaba.com this morning along with a FAQ sheet for people. There is very little information on the website about this change so far. It isn't looking great right now.

Those lowered numbers are because they won't be working for Mesaba/Comair anymore. Not that they are getting rid of that many. Those are the total employees.

I dont think its THAT bad....the employees of Mesaba and Comair are not going away, they are being integrated into this new company...what that means for ground service employees, I do not know...but I do know Comair rampers are some of the best in the business!

The way I understand it is that no one is really being eliminated, just merged. Then called somthing else.

The people themselves for the most part will still have jobs so that is good. They are going to eliminate some positions, but plan to do so through attrition and voluntary programs. However, make no mistake, Comair as a company just lost half of it's workforce today. We are that much smaller of a company now. Those Customer Service Employees no longer work for Comair.