Delta selling Comair?

[Chi829]

Roz,,,, any truth to this? DH tells me that two of his friends who fly for Comair have called him with this info...... Have you heard anything?

[Kristie]

it wouldn't surprise me!

[Shelbysmom]

Well, I think most of us hope so! (DH is a cpt at CMR.) The general opinion of both union and management is that our only hope is to get out from under Delta. The goal is to be purchased whole either by outside investors or spun off in an IPO (less likely). We just hope we're not sold to another airline such as Mesa. Rumor has it that Buttrell, our CEO, had investors lined up when Delta declared, so the deal went under. Another rumor is that we are already bidding on outside flying pending the outcome of this crappy proposal we're voting on now.

Supposedly the point behind the proposal is to get costs low enough to guarantee profits and interest investors.

So yes, we all think we will be sold sooner rather than later. Comair was a very successful airline prior to being purchased by Delta (the purchase was a pretty hostile situation) and we believe we can again be very successful out from under them. Assuming of course we're purchased by someone decent. We'll see.

[biochemtine]

Eric says, "That's old news......"

[MQAAord]

Ha! Go independent...........worked great for ACA didn't it! (ACA=Independance Air).

Seriously, the rumor mill spurns some interesting stories sometimes. Don't believe anything till you see it for yourself.

[Shelbysmom]

I think it's different from Indy/ACA - IIRC, they went truly independent, tried to sell their own tickets and essentially become an LCC. Think more like Skywest, still a contract carrier but able to provide lift for numerous airlines. Any sale of CMR would have to come with guarantee of feed from Delta, as in the ASA sale to Skywest, or no one is going to be interested. But we would be free to bid on flying for other airlines as well. On the other side of that, the bid-for-flying process is awful too and just keeps the downward spiral moving as everyone underbids everyone else for survival.

Of course, it's all speculation. Who knows what will happen? We could also be liquidated and become a ground operation.

[Doogie]

I don't want to be mean, but the last regional that got "out from under" a major was Independence Air.

There's a large glut of 50-seat capacity so there's really no 'white knite' in waiting to purchase a fleet of CRJ's and redeploy them in pre-saturated markets.

Probably a more realistic approach is a consultant at http://aviationplanning.com (Boyd Consulting).

[biochemtine]

ComAir was independent before they were with Delta.

[Shelbysmom]

Well, I guess I could sit and wring my hands and be scared to death about a sale, but what can I do? It's not like anyone's going to ask my input on the decision. We have resumes out, have friends working it at NetJets and UPS, made our preparations for the worst and at this point, I'm over worrying about something that's completely out of our control. I'm pregnant, hormonal, have my own business to run and a toddler to raise - I'd rather hope for the best, such as it is. I keep up with the industry pretty well for a chick, and I think we've got as good a shot without Delta as with, although my wish would be to get out of pax aviation altogether because it pretty much sucks all around these days.

I'm familiar with Michael Boyd. I like Holly Hegeman better, although thanks to our pretty new contract I can't afford PlaneBusiness anymore. At least Boyd shares his wisdom for free.

I'm sorry to sound so irritable, but I'm just worn out with comparisons to Indy. Skywest is independent, Comair was once very successfully independent, so what the heck. Maybe we'll make it, maybe not. The same thing can be said for remaining a wholly owned - I assume and hope DL will survive BK, but maybe they'll ax CVG in the process and it's back to bye-bye Comair. Again, it ain't like I'm going to get a say in it and I've lost enough sleep over it by now.

Good or bad, I would guess a sale is in the offing - it's been confirmed that Comair has put a bid in for Northwest flying out of Memphis, and they're calling back 54 furloughs. Can a wholly-owned fly for another company? Or maybe it's part of a grander, DL/NWA merge plan? Where did I put that crystal ball, I had it last Halloween ...