Compass Airline is in the toilet...so I heard
 

This is what I have heard...kind of funny too. Well through the grapevine management has screwed the pooch sort of say on the ol' Compass deal. For one, the operating certificate that they bought (formerly Independence Air) is now expired. Well there was a good million down the toilet. I also heard that they really didn't have a infrastructure set up to even start the airline in the first place. My guess this was managements way to get Mesaba and Pinnacle to reduce their cost structure in order for the red flag to save money. Now I know you guys are going to ask my source of information...NWA pilot and he told me he got the info from internal email and NWA pilot website. His feeling is Compass won't even start. Feel free to comment and bash me if you will...but I thought I would share some info that I just received...good flying.

At one point that was true, from what I had seen NW had to get the cert back online (hense the 1 crj sitting at IAD). Without the cert alive NWA could not get the financing for the order of -900's and embraers. This is the last that I read which was back a few weeks when the 72 jet order was placed by NW.

NWA has been flying one RJ between IAD-MSP under the Compass certificate to keep it active. Don't underestimate this management to do anything to draw down mainline flying

The only CRJ I see on NWA's schedule going between MSP and IAD is operated by Pinnacle...

Thats why I said SITTING... I am not sure what goes into keeping a cert alive but supposedly they can with that one RJ. I dont know any more on that front, on top of that I dont know if there is any revenue service going on with that plane so IF it does fly I dont know if it would be on NWA's site.

My comment was in response to maddog's post that Compass has been flying 1 RJ between MSP and IAD.

Believe me, I am no expert on this but I think they are flying this one flight under the Compass certificate with a Pinnacle Aircraft. Maybe someone smarter or more knowledgeable than I am can post if this is possible or legal.

I'm sure its legal. But looking at the NWA reservations website, every CRJ operating from MSP-IAD is operated by Pinnacle Airlines.

Compass is not flying. They have one of the two CRJs we (Mesaba) got last fall. It is sitting in IAD waiting for the certificate to get approved. We are currently operating just one CRJ at Mesaba to keep the CRJ program alive. Also spooling up additional CRJ instructors...ask me why.

Yes, the Independance Certificate did expire. NWA had to apply for a new certificate and that is currently in the approval process with the FAA. Expected date is sometime in February from the last rumor I heard.

So, there is no current certificate, so there is no flying, revenew flying anyway. They do have a mangement staff and and a few pilots but it is a skeleton operation to this point.

Bigger news is that the mainline recalls may negate the whole Compass deal anyway. If there are no NWA furloughees to recall, there really is no sense to even turning on Compass. We shall see.

sure there is... nwa can build up compass instead of mesaba or pinnicle and then sell it off to make money. what money will they get if they give the flying to either mesaba or pinnicle?

They could do that, and they may do that. I am thinking though, that NWA will be leasing the EMB-175s they intend to operate on that certificate. In order to be sold, Compass has to have a certain number of jets on property, (according to the contract) and I can't remember off hand what that number is. So, as far as assets go, it really isn't going to have the value in comparison to what it would cost in start-up and operation for the first year or two.

If all NWA has to do is lease the airplanes and have an airlink partner operate and maintain them while they collect the revenue from sales, it justs seems to be a more attractive business plan. Keep in mind that the whole idea behind Compass was to provide incentive to pass the TA...keeping jobs at NWA instead of sending them out to Airlink partners. If all of the pilots are recalled to the mainline by mid 2007, I just don't see the incentive for spending the $$ to get the airline up and running when they could place the jets with say RAH that already holds a certificate and operating authority for that type of airplane, and just collect on revenue ticket sales.

It is an interesting situation they are in. Worth a gentleman's wager for sure!