Comair plans to pare fleet, cut jobs

September 02, 2010|Associated Press

CINCINNATI — Comair, a regional airline owned by Delta Air Lines Inc., will shrink its fleet by more than half and reduce staff over the next two years to cut costs.

President John Bendoraitis told employees in a memo yesterday that Comair will get rid of most of its aging, less-efficient 50-seat jets and keep its bigger 65-seat and 76-seat jets. The airline plans to shrink its fleet of 97 planes to 44 by the end of 2012.

That should save Comair about $110 million over the next four years, Bendoraitis said.

Comair’s current cost structure remains about 20 percent higher than its peers on a cost-per-hour basis, he said.

Comair begins contract negotiations soon with pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics, and will seek “new, more competitive agreements,’’ the airline said.

Jim Samuel, an official with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the union representing Comair’s mechanics, said his first reaction to the cuts was “sheer surprise.’’

While Comair did not give specific numbers of workers to be cut, Samuel thinks it is likely to be about half of the workforce.

Comair has about 2,600 employees and operates more than 400 flights a day to about 70 cities in the United States, Canada, and the Bahamas.