No paint change. Just change the "operated by" sticker. So easy!!

Oh well, except for the 1600 people losing their jobs on Sept 29.

Wait. That was kind of easy (for Delta) too!!

 

No, you did not get that right.

That's like saying the Delta pilots convinced Anderson to get 70 more large RJs.

 

It's a sad time for those who will be losing their jobs. For a good period of time, Comair was considered by some to be the gold standard in regional flying. Comair will now, sadly, serve as a cautionary tale about the industry.

In some sense, I'm not surprised by Delta's move. With newer, more efficient engines being built and America's desire for cost over service, the mainlines have probably determined flying two flights on 150 seat jets is far better than paying someone to fly 50 seat jets five or six times a day.

Don't discount how important it will be for the new behemoth mainlines to keep their extremely large pilot groups happy. Keeping the labor peace with a 12,000 man workforce can't be overstated. A strike or slowdown would harshly affect a company that control 20% of all commercial flights in the US.

Some, possibly many will disgree with me, but I doubt we'll see many regional carriers left in five years. I look for the mainlines to reclaim their routes and fly more efficient, larger jets with their own pilots staffing them. Certainly, a few might survive, but likely as stand alone carriers in the mold of Virgen America or Spirit. That's just my view though.

 

Even in this economy, you don't necessarily need TPIC time or internal connections to get hired at a LCC/major. It's about having the motivation and the aptitude to leave. I can't count how many pilots I flew with that didn't bother updating their logbooks, some of them for over 6 months! I'm not just talking about Captains, but FOs too. How can you have an updated resume and apply online if you don't even know your flight times? I will say the CAs and FOs I knew at regionals that have moved on to Spirit, VA, JetBlue, US Air, Fedex, were all driven to leave and constantly kept their stuff up to date and applied regularly.

 

What tale is that? That you cannot retire at a regional that constantly gets its work revenue from a mainline partner in flying contracts that can be cut/minimized/eliminated pretty much at the whim of said mainline carrier? That's not a cautionary tale, that's common sense.

 

6 months is nothing, I fly with guys who have gone 6 years without updating their logs.

 

I understand what you are saying but Comair was definetly a little different in my opinion. Comair was not a delta "partner", they were a wholly owned delta carrier.

 

I think we'll be down to four regionals:

SkywestASAExpressjetWisconsinPSAHorizon

RepublicChatakwaShuttleLynxFrontier

TransGoJetssssssCompassLakesStatesCommutair

PinnacoladaMesaSilver

 

Ok, how up to date are your logs nowadays?

 

Sadly, I think u might be right.