Delta Air Lines Announces Closure of Comair

US major Delta Air Lines has revealed plans to close its regional division Comair from September 29, 2012 as part of a revised network strategy to move more of its business from its regional partners to its mainline business. The airline plans to reduce the total number of regional jets in its network, including reducing its 50-seater fleet from nearly 350 aircraft to 125 or fewer in the upcoming years.

"While regional flying has and will remain a key component of Delta's network, customer expectations and the unit costs of regional flying have evolved,” explained , Don Bornhorst, Senior Vice President of Delta Connection in a memo issued today to the Officers and Directors of Delta Air Lines. “As a result of this reduction and changes to its customer-focused business strategy, Delta has made the difficult decision to cease Comair's operations.”

Comair was established as an independent venture in March 1977 and launched flights the following month using two Piper Navajo aircraft. It became a public company in July 1981 and started flying for Delta Air Lines under the Delta Connection brand in 1984. The US major later acquired a 20 per cent equity stake in Comair in July 1986 later taking full ownership in October 1999.

The airline has always been based at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport and unsurprisingly, as the table below illustrates, its main activities remain there; its second largest network point behind Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County. Its network currently covers a large number of destinations in the United States, as well as international links to Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas.

According to Ryan Gumm, President of Comair, the closure of the airline’s operations will not result in any significant changes to Delta's network, which has enough flexibility to accommodate these changes. The airline currently accounts for approximately one per cent of Delta's network capacity and even though it has a strong presence in Cincinnati there will be no reduction in the number of Delta flights from the city as a result of the announcement.

“Cincinnati will continue to be an important market in Delta's worldwide network,” said Ryan Gumm. “Over the past several years, working with community leaders, Delta has right-sized capacity at Cincinnati to better match service to local passenger demand. Cincinnati is now a profitable market for Delta and the city continues to enjoy over 120 peak daily flights, with non-stop service to 49 destinations.”

In a letter to Comair’s employees Gumm added: “I understand that today's news is very difficult and raises many questions for you and your family. The discontinuation of Comair's operations is in no way a failure or a reflection of your work – it is an unfortunate necessity due to the economic limitations of our aging aircraft, cost structure, the long-term outlook for 50-seat aircraft, and our challenging industry and economy.”

The future of Comair has been uncertain since Delta started its review of its regional jet flying in light of the significant changes in the economic and competitive conditions in the airline industry. The airline operates some of the oldest 50-seat aircraft in the Delta Connection fleet, which also have the highest unit cost per flight hour. Delta has now decided to remove the remaining 16 Comair Bombardier CRJ200s from the Delta network. This would leave the operation with just 28 aircraft in scheduled service only creating higher unit costs equating to a business model that is no longer sustainable in this competitive regional environment.