BANGOR – Comair pilot Capt. Max Roberts has flown here at least once every month since the airline started service to Bangor International Airport two years ago.

He expects to be flying to Bangor again, and hopes it is sooner than later.

On March 26, Roberts and almost 1,150 Comair pilots went on strike against the airline, seeking a pay increase, longer rest breaks, pay for all on-duty hours – not just hours spent flying – and a company-paid retirement program.

Since the strike began, Roberts has been working in his union’s office in Cincinnati, answering media calls and inquiries from fellow pilots.

Today, Roberts for the first time will see the proposed contract that was negotiated last week. After that, he and the other pilots will begin voting. Results are expected Friday evening.

From what Roberts has been told, the contract contains “substantial gains” in what the pilots want compared with what has been offered in the past. That makes this vote easier for him.

“In no negotiating world do you come up with 100 percent of what you want,” Roberts said. “Just open up your dictionary and look up ‘negotiation.'”

Roberts doesn’t think the contract will be turned down. Unlike the two previous contracts presented to the pilots, and subsequently voted down, this version has the support of union leadership.

“Now we have a completely different environment,” Roberts said. “We are all hoping we have a contract Friday night.”

When Roberts and his contemporaries will return to the skies – and where they will fly – is not known. Comair officials have not discussed publicly the airline’s startup plans.

“We’re going to talk about that in great detail [after the vote],” said Comair spokesman Nick Miller on Monday. “There really isn’t much I can share with you at this time.”

Roberts isn’t worried. “I can tell you the company knows exactly how they’re going to ramp up operations,” Roberts said. “The obvious question is how long until we start flying back to Bangor. We don’t know. My understanding is the company could start flying again within seven days after the vote. Then it’s a matter of what routes the company will do first.”

Delta was the highest-volume carrier out of BIA until 2000, when its market share dropped from 61 percent to 28 percent, according to BIA numbers. The airline removed its 142-seat jets in March 1999, and a year later lost Business Express as a connection carrier for its passengers to Boston, when the commuter line was sold to American Airlines.

And now the Comair strike left Delta without a commuter from BIA, a regional airport, to one of its hubs, Cincinnati. In 2000 and the first three months of this year, Comair, on average, filled 77 percent of its 50-person regional jets on flights between Bangor and Cincinnati, according to BIA figures. The industry average for routes to be considered worth flying is 65 percent.

Comair, though, realized that four round-trip flights were not making the money the company would like, and last summer announced it was cutting back to three round-trip flights, which it was flying when the strike began. By doing that, the profit margin levels increased, according to BIA estimations.

Since Roberts and the other Comair pilots went on strike, Comair’s parent company, Delta Air Lines, has announced it is adding five round-trip flights between Bangor and Boston.

But that arrangement is through Delta’s contract with Atlantic Coast Airlines, which will carry passengers from BIA to Logan International Airport starting Aug. 1. Like Comair, ACA will fly under the moniker Delta Connection, which means Delta ticket holders in smaller markets such as Bangor use the service to get to major airports and catch connecting Delta flights there.

Last week’s announcement of the new service was made the same day Comair and its pilots returned to the negotiating table. They reached a deal on Thursday, two days later.

With the strike expected to end this week, Roberts said he believes there is room for both Delta Connection airlines in the Bangor market. Both serve a specific purpose, he said, getting ticket holders to destinations east and south from Boston, and west and south from Cincinnati.