Comair pilots OK contract

HEBRON, Ky. – Comair’s pilots ratified a new contract, ending a 3-month strike that crippled the regional airline, a union official said Friday.

Comair said it expected to resume some service by July 2.

Comair’s 1,300 pilots walked out March 26, shutting down a company that had carried 25,000 passengers a day to 95 cities in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas. Comair had been the nation’s second-largest regional airline behind American Eagle.

The pilots approved the contract by a vote of 733-408, according to Capt. J.C. Lawson, head of the Comair chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. The deal gives them a company-paid retirement plan and the best pay in the regional airline industry.

Pilots had complained they are required to be on duty as long as 370 hours a month in order to log 84 to 92 hours in the air.

Comair and the pilots’ union reached the tentative contact agreement June 14 after three days of talks with federal mediators. The airline also flies under the name of Delta Express and is owned by Delta Air Lines.

“I am proud to be a Comair pilot,” Lawson said. “I am proud of our company. Our strike is over. We are going back to work. We look forward to returning to our cockpits.”

Because it will take some time to safety-check the airplanes and retrain pilots, Comair will first return to service with 10 aircraft and flights to 26 cities, Comair president Randy Rademacher.

Comair expects to have about 50 planes in the air by the end of July and resume service to most of its markets by December.

Rademacher declined to say how much the strike had cost Comair or what the settlement will cost the airline.