joel payne

Compass Airlines Near Takeoff


Northwest Airlines takes another step toward getting its Compass Airlines subsidiary off the ground.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has approved Compass' request to begin flying.

Compass still needs FAA approval to become the third regional carrier flying for Northwest. As a more than $4 million dollar investment, Compass could have as many as 36 small jets flying within five years, but its start date hasn't been set.

Compass will compete for regional flights with Northwest's two other regional feeders, Mesaba Airlines and Pinnacle Airlines, under the Northwest Airlink name. Those two carriers get all of their business from Northwest.

Both Northwest and Mesaba are reorganizing under bankruptcy protection.

Space Monkey

I guess that would explain why they finally took all the plugs out of that CRJ at IAD......

surreal1221

It's their way of getting non-union pilots willing to work for less than the PCL guys.

Fkn sad.

fosters

You DO realize that Compass is ALPA, and not only that, but those hired off the street will have a NWA (mainline) senority number, right?

higney85

What is interesting about the seniority number deal is that it was supposed to be furloughed NWA mainline guys getting called back and getting to start at compass, but from what I was hearing from some NW DC-9 guys is that they wanted to call back 50 pilots, but had to go 300 deep to get 50. Thats about a 1 to 6 ratio. I'm not sure how many pilots NW furloughed or how many they called back, but it may truly turn into an "off the street" event once they get more planes. Also NWA may still be in bancruptcy but guys are still nearing retirement so I am not sure how long NWA will be able to maintain with the current pilot loads. The same DC-9 guys were told that -if things continue the way they are- all furloughed guys will have been called back (doesnt mean all will come back) and that they may actually need to hire a few classes to deal with guys retiring, leaving, etc. There is alot of hearsay in that but time will tell. Personally I see more of a transition to get the DC-9's out and take the routes and use either the 76 seaters, A319's, or some of the 50 seaters to cover. I dont see much happening for a while either way.

CL65driver

Any news on Pinnacle being let out of their obligation to fly just NW Airlink? Would be interesting to see them branch out somewhere else.

Who knows- my crystal ball says this Compass thing will go through and NWA will screw both Mesaba and Pinchanickle. C'mon, it's the NWA way!

higney85

There were 3 days of negotiations with arbitration last week. I would expect to hear more this week.. let the picketing begin! Most things have recieved the TA stamp but the big issues such as compensation, scheduling, duty time, and benefits have been the issues (arent they the big ones anyway...). I hope its worked out soon for everyone's sake! I wouldnt mind PNCL flying for other people, in my view its added job security, but the non-union aspect is a big issue that the current PNCL senority list wont tolerate.

crewdawg52

The real numbers were something in the order of 140 recall notices to get a class of 25 for training in Oct.

119 sent out last Fri for 25 to start training in Dec. Total on furlough I believe is approx 425. That's a guesstimation.

jmack

Pinnacle would have no airplanes to fly, they are all NWA planes. I hate to say it, as a fprmer pinnacle pilot, looks like bye bye pinnacle. My guess is 2 years, another ACA

higney85

How could NW cover the 700 flights a day that pinnacle does? compass can only get a certain number of planes on the cert and I know its much less than the 124 PNCL currently flies.