Industry braces for fallout from Comair strike settlement
An unsettling air of ambivalence descended on Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport last month as Comair pilots ended an 89-day strike that cost Delta Air L

An unsettling air of ambivalence descended on Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport last month as Comair pilots ended an 89-day strike that cost Delta Air Lines at least $200 million and an untold number of non-striking employees their jobs. One might expect a feeling of relief from all involved, after fears of a complete collapse of the most financially successful regional airline in history weighed heavily on the industry for the better part of three months.

But a sense of any sort of meaningful long-term accomplishment has proved harder to encounter. Of course, flight crews can return to their daily routines as the highest-paid pilots in the regional airline industry, and the airline can start rebuilding an infrastructure that took more than a decade to construct. But who, if anyone, one may ask, emerged as the real winner?