Comair, which is based out of the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, serves more than 8 million passengers annually. It operates 815 flights to 95 cities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas.

Comair was founded in 1977 and acquired by Atlanta-based Delta Airlines in 1999. The pilots are seeking salaries closer to those earned by pilots flying on Delta's mainline operation.

A recent contract offer by the company, which was rejected by the pilots, called for increasing the pay of top-scale pilots from $66,000 to $96,000. But only the 40 pilots who have at least 18 years of experience would be eligible for this pay rate. The 420 pilots with two years of experience or less would receive less than $30,000 annually.

President George Bush, who said recently that he would "take the necessary steps" to prevent strikes at the nation's airlines, did not receive a request from the National Mediation Board to intervene. "They did not give me the right to move in on the strike," stated Bush during a visit to Kansas City, Missouri. "And therefore the parties are going to have to settle it themselves."

Delta has assured its mainline pilots that it would not try to service the struck routes with aircraft from other company operations. The airline is also facing possible strike action by members of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) who fly for Delta and Delta Express.

ALPA must decide by March 29 whether to accept an offer to arbitrate its contract dispute with Delta. A refusal by the pilots to accept arbitration would trigger a 30-day cooling-off period that would leave ALPA free to strike the nation's third largest airline in late April or early May.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home