Guy, OH was largest privately owned "Regional" carrier in the world before DL bought it (still not sure why) and screwed it up. It WAS a place to work and retire from. You'd surprised how many pilots retired from there after 15, 20, 25+ years in the line. It wrote its own ticket (per say) for a very long time, and was bigger than lots of the majors of this time (Airtran, Spirit, and I believe Jetblue). And at one time was hellbent on moving on up (to the east side) to "major" status by buying bigger aircrafts (757, 737 and others), and join the fray against the DL, US, AA, etc in this country. Btw, I believe after the purchase, there were 10-15 of the DL MD-88 that were fully purchased with OH assets (money) and for some years flew under the Comair Holdings registration. I jumpsat in a couple of those and got a kick by seeing the registration.
Please research it.....bet you it will surprise you.

Nothing surprises "Shy the all-knowing".

How do you get stability in a wholly-owned? That's probably the worst model, because the major partner can cut flying, park fleets, or outsource to another regional in an instant. How does that help?

Air Wisconsin was the oldest privately held regional airline until United screwed it up. Same story, 15, 20, 25+ year guys in the line. Now they're down to 70 CRJs with all senior pilots being forced a two leg commute from ATW to PHL/DCA.

After the purchase, it's all Delta's money. On paper they can show whatever they want. Sure Comair probably made them money back then. And sure some of that money was funneled for purchasing MD80s, and even registered in Comair holdings. However, being wholly owned means wholly owned. Delta can show whatever profit or loss it wants, just as AMR has been doing at Eagle for years.

Shy,

We all have the advantage of hindsight now. As to why people would stay some reasons were given. It was a case of perception. Being junior, I moved on as soon as I could. I'm sure the senior people now are not at all happy with the present situation not just their personal situation but also Comair's too. They held out hope that things would recover as OH went through NG2,3,4 and whatever they are up to now.
I was recently in Narita with some UA and CO guys. They also spoke of how trhings had changed for them in ways they would have never dreamed in their worst dreams (regarding the last 15years). It's not just OH that has hit a wall, the difference is, as you mention, being wholly owned they are at the owning airlines mercy in the race to the bottom that is not a good place to be.
One thing posters fail to mention is the great people who are at OH and their families. Hopefully DL pulls a "just kidding" and lets the good people continue.

Heard from a reliable source on Virginia Ave that all CRJ-200 flying will end on 9/4 and the rest will be wound down by the 28th.

Except an announcement Friday.

Source please.

Hey Spoils, been a while my friend. Hope you're well. Anyhow, yes they do like to hand out bad news the friday before a big date. Very sad.

How "firm" is the Friday announcement?

Depends, is she over 40?

Damn... I sure hope this isn't correct. I've been treated well by many OH folks over the years. This would not be a fitting end, after all the years of service they gave to Mother D.

Untrue. Fearmongering. Carry on.

Delta made a lot of updates to the GDS this weekend, and I can still find comair flights into 2013... not to mention, it would take some prior planning and announcements to transfer their current fleet to another airline, as well as legal obligations to warn pilots of impending furlough. Does not seem likely Delta has made any final decisions yet.

As much as I'd like to think you're right, it's only a 30 days notice for furloughs, and same amount of time to increase/decrease flight schedules for other companies. So if they have something in mind, 30 days is all they need.

As per the contract, 14 days written notice prior to the furlough.

Yeah. 30 days to staff 28+ aircraft. Righttttt....

Delta always pulls flying down for the Fall, and supposedly Gojet is overstaffed right now.....

We'll see what happens. Hope all these rumors are untrue....

Aren't they required to give WARN notices 60 days in advance?

http://www.doleta.gov/programs/factsht/warn.htm

Was not aware of that. Thanks, I was just quoting per our contract of any furloughs. I would think if OH ceases operations, then it would be covered under WARN.

Announcement this Friday (7/27) would allow for 63 days notice if a shutdown was, in fact, planned for 9/28.

Believe what you want. About 5 weeks ago, I too heard 7/27 as "the announcement" from a very reliable source. And this was just before that painful memo came out. And no, I will not post my source on an anonymous forum. I truely hope something has changed recently to prevent this. I have only love and hope for my former Comair peeps! :(

P.S. Doesn't it seem odd that this memo came out just days after the passage of the Delta TA that includes a large reduction in overall DCI flying?

They are required to give you the WARN notice, like someone said a few posts ago they will likely hand them out Friday if what most dates that are being said are true. We got ours at Eagle after they filled BK and we set to closed the DFW ATR base, hope all works out for you guy and I am sorry to hear that this will happen to you guys/gals.

28+ aircraft, of which you don't want to fly all of them and plan to park some/most...and spread out among what, 4-5 airlines...right?

I would say over 2-3 airlines, and they would drop 200's so it would end up as = staffing.. My thinking would be....If Comair was going to be around long term, they would have countered the bad pess about getting shutdown..

Once again. You forget the fact that Comair is in contract negotiations with all THREE UNIONS SIMULTANEOUSLY! A company NEVER counters bad press at this time and in fact may encourage it.

As you can tell, everybody else has countered point your claims (btw it is only required 30 days notice to DOT to change an ENTIRE schedule, never the less one that might be spread about different airlines). However this statement is probably the smartest you have made about this situation. Yes it is a small possibility to use the bad press and info circulating as a contract negotiation point. Yet my question would be (if i were an union negotiator), "why would I be affraid of those rumors if you (mgmt) is still negotiating for a new contract?. What's the point if you (mgmt) are going to closes us down?".
Anyhow, truly hope you're correct about that.

The point is to instill fear and intimidate the rank and file into accepting and voting in a new contract with even greater cuts.

optimistic at best. Delusional at worst.

Bulletin "400" will be loaded on 07/28/2012 with many changes.

From what I understand, two of three unions have proposals before the company. The IBT has not as far as I know.

I still think that Delta's intention is to shut us down; though I am sure they would love to get a very favorable contract from pilots, what pilots do means nothing if the others don't play ball.

Here's how I would handicap this: 65% chance we are shut down outright. 20% chance of some sort of hybrid arrangement that calls for some airplanes/crews to go elsewhere. 15% chance of new contract with drastically low rates (lower than gojets) and hope for expansion.

Of course, Comair could merely be a stalking horse to used in negotiations with Pinnacle.

COMAIR is in it's situation simply because they cost too much to operate the types of equipment they fly and the amount of revenue the operation generates for "Big D". Bottom-line is "meat in the seat" (pilots) as cheaply as possible. Customer service that was once legendary at Delta has taken a backseat to profitability and cost reduction.

Don't worry about my source. From what I've been told there's a meeting scheduled between DL/OH mgmt tomorrow night, with some sort of press release Friday.

I hope for the best but if you look at the sch. to be posted on 07/28/2012 and break it down to specific city pairs a long with the specific departure time.....it doesn't look good.

You know what we will all feel Friday? Relief. No matter what happens, we will feel relief. Unless of course Delta kicks the can down the road again....

My question is: what will happen to my flight benefits that were set to expire OCT 2013? Five years after furlough?

Please say extended.

I was wondering the same

I would imagine since ops would cease, active pilots would be terminated, not furloughed, and all benefits would not exist. However I wonder about COBRA, since it is partial employer and employee paid now. Please correct me if I am wrong.

If Comair shuts down all Pass Benifits will cease no mater if you're retired, took a buyout or got furloughed. We have never been employed by Delta. This came right from the Pass department.

nevermind.....

I wonder if the almighty PresBo had a talk with Richard about putting 3000 more people on the street during an election year? Not going to help his job numbers!

Maybe we have a snowball's chance in hell that we will survive!