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Comair digs in
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March 28, 2001: 12:01 p.m. ET
No. 2 regional carrier extends flight cancellations through April 5
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Comair announced Wednesday it was canceling all flights through the morning of Thursday, April 5, as the nation's second-biggest regional airline digs in for what could be a long strike by its pilots.
The carrier, a unit of Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL: Research, Estimates), also said it will continue to cancel all flights seven days in advance until an agreement is reached with its pilots' union.
"We want to get back to the table and bring this situation to a resolution," Comair President Randy Rademacher said in a statement. "In the meantime, we must continue to make decisions that are in the best interest of our customers and employees."
 Comair pilots remained off the job for a third day Wednesday, with no new talks scheduled between the union and the company and no government intervention expected.
"I don't anticipate we will be involved in the Comair strike," Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said Tuesday in Washington. President Bush temporarily blocked a strike by Northwest Airlines mechanics earlier this month.
A spokesman for the pilot's unions, the Air Line Pilots Association, echoed the company's comment about being willing to resume talks anytime, but said there had been no move to go back to the bargaining table. He said the company had not told the union directly about the new flight cancellation schedule.
"They're clearly sending a signal they're going to hunker down, that they'd rather shut the airline down than treat pilots fairly," said ALPA spokesman Paul Lackie, a Comair captain and seven-year veteran of the airline.
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The pilots want higher pay, company-paid retirement, more rest between shifts and pay for non-flying hours when they are on duty. They have said they will remain off the job until they obtain the changes they seek.
Comair normally operates 815 flights a day serving 25,000 passengers from 95 cities in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas. It handles about half the flights under the Delta Connection name, concentrating on Delta's hubs in Cincinnati and Orlando.
Other carriers not affected by the strike handle the Delta Connection flights to and from Delta hubs in Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. But a bit less than half of Comair's normal passengers are connecting to or from Delta flights, and Lackie said the need to rebook those passengers is hurting Delta's own bookings.
"I can tell you Cincinnati is awfully quiet," he said. "I know of one 727 from Washington that came in with 156 seats on the plane yesterday and only 25 people."
Delta officials have refused to comment on the strike, referring calls to Comair.
 The pilots and the union have been involved in contract talks since June 1998. Federal mediators periodically have joined the talks since August 1999. The walkout is the first strike against Comair in the airline's 24-year history. Comair flight attendants, represented by the Teamsters union, have been in contract talks with management for about a year.
Ray Neidl, analyst with ING Barings, said he believes the strike will hurt Delta, which has already warned that it will report a loss in the current quarter that ends Saturday due to passenger concerns about labor disruptions.
Besides the Comair strike, the pilots at Delta will decide Thursday whether to accept a federal offer of binding arbitration or start the clock ticking towards a possible strike 30 days later.
"The longer it drags on, the more it's going to hurt," said Neidl. "But I'm probably going to wait a couple of days to change Delta's estimates."
Delta bought Comair in January 2000. It does not break out the results for Comair or its other regional "feeder" airlines. Lackie said financial statements from Comair when it was independent show it was more profitable than Delta or any of the other major airlines.
"They're fighting to hang onto record profits," Lackie said.
Delta stock fell 64 cents to $39.69 at midday on the New York Stock Exchange. 
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