Delta, Comair: Bankruptcy won't affect No. 2 hub, yet

<p>Airline officials said Delta Air Lines' Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing Wednesday won't have any immediate affect operations at its second-largest hub.</p><p>"It's business as usual at this point" at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Delta spokeswoman Benet Wilson said.</p><p>Atlanta-based Delta said it will operate its full schedule, honor all tickets and keep up its frequent flier program and other amenities. Officials at its Erlanger, Ky.-based subsidiary, Comair, which was included in the bankruptcy filing, also said there would be no disruptions in service.</p><p>"Comair and its employees are continuing to operate our flights and we're going to maintain our integral role in Delta operations," said Comair spokesman Nick Miller. Airport customers will find a normal schedule, "and our employees will be serving them."</p><p>Wilson said Delta, which last week announced plans for about a 25 percent cutback in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky operations as of Dec. 1, continues to look at its entire network for more changes. But she said the company won't speculate on future moves.</p><p>Delta's flights accounted for some 92 percent of the nearly 22 million passengers who went through the airport last year, the airport has said. Delta and Delta Connection carriers operate 599 flights a day, out of about 660 by all carriers.</p><p>Airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said the airport expects "minimal immediate impact" financially, because Delta is current on its payments and plans to keep flying.</p><p>Comair carried its record high number of passengers, 12.6 million, in 2004. It has about 400 daily flights from Cincinnati, and frequent service from Atlanta, New York, Washington, Boston and Orlando. Overall, Comair has 1,100 flights a day to some 110 cities in the United States, Canada and the Bahamas.</p><p>In a memo to employees, Comair President Fred Buttrell said the company plans to maintain normal operations, meet payroll obligations and keep up employee benefit programs.</p><p>"The months ahead will test our resolve. We must move quickly, we must move together and we must try not to lose focus on doing all we can to achieve operational integrity, customer service excellence and retool our costs to achieve a winning growth strategy," Buttrell's message said.</p><p>Comair has 6,800 employees, with some 4,000 in the Cincinnati area. Delta and Comair have some 8,000 employees combined in the Cincinnati-northern Kentucky area, although the airlines said last week that the Dec. 1 service cutbacks would affect up to 1,000 jobs _ 350 at Comair, the airlines had said.</p><p>The regional carrier had bounced back from a Christmas 2004 fiasco when a computer failure forced a shutdown that stranded thousands of holiday fliers.</p><p>Founded in 1977 as a three-plane commuter service, Comair became a Delta partner in 1984 and was acquired by Delta in 2000. A leader in the regional jets era, Comair's fleet grew to 174 Bombardier CRJ jets ranging from 40-seaters to 70 seats.</p><p>Delta last month sold another regional carrier, Atlantic Southeast Airlines Inc., to SkyWest Inc. for $425 million as the cash-strapped carrier fought desperately to restructure its debt and avoid bankruptcy.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc8e8)</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc96c)</p>

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