Delta Air Lines announced its subsidiary, Comair, Inc. will cease operations after Sept. 29, 2012.
In a memo issued on July 27, 2012 to the officers and directors of Delta Air Lines, Don Bornhorst, senior vice president of Delta Connection, said:
“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. In response, Delta recently announced its plans to reduce the total number of regional jets in its network while adding more mainline flying. This includes reducing the number of 50-seat regional jets from nearly 350 aircraft to 125 or fewer in the upcoming years. 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.”
Ryan Gumm, president of Comair, communicated Delta’s decision this morning to Comair employees in a memo.
The discontinuation of Comair’s operations will not result in any significant changes to Delta’s network, which has enough flexibility to accommodate these changes. Currently, Comair accounts for approximately one percent of Delta’s network capacity. There will be no disruption to customers and no significant adjustments to Delta’s flight schedule or locations served, according to Delta.
Delta says Cincinnati will continue to be an important market in their worldwide network. The company says Cincinnati is now a profitable market and the city continues to enjoy more than 120 peak daily flights, with non-stop service to 49 destinations. No reductions in the number of Delta flights are planned at Cincinnati as a result of this decision, they say.