HEBRON, Ky. – Comair returned to the skies Monday after a crippling three-month pilots strike and now must work to win back travelers and rebuild its fleet.

“We’re looking forward, not backward,” Randy Rademacher, president of the regional airline, said as he watched the takeoff of the first flight since the walkout.

Before the strike began March 26, Comair was the nation’s second-largest regional airline. But it faces new competition at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport and a slowing economy that has hurt airlines in general.

Both sides also acknowledged possible resentment between pilots and workers who were laid off because of the strike, the first since the airline was founded in 1977. Pilots went on strike over wages and benefits issues.

The new contract gives them a company-paid retirement plan and the best pay in the regional airline industry.

The pilots ratified the contract June 22, but flights could not begin until they had undergone required retraining.

Comair resumed service Monday from Cincinnati to 26 cities and hopes to be flying to 78 cities by Aug. 1. Before the walkout, the airline had been second in size only to American Eagle, served 95 cities from Maine to Mexico and carried about 25,000 passengers a day.

The airline has offered discount fares to win back travelers.

The strike cost Comair more than $200 million in revenue and prompted the airline to reduce its fleet from 119 aircraft to 82. Rademacher said the fleet might not get back to its former level until late next year.

Airline industry analyst Michael Boyd predicted Comair will be largely back to pre-strike levels within a few months because it is owned by Delta Air Lines and enjoys a guaranteed passenger flow through its coordinated flight schedules with Delta.