Cincinnati-based Comair will close its doors at the end September, and nearly 2,000 people will lose their jobs as a result. Granted, the reasons for the airline’s demise might not matter much to them, but perhaps an examination of the forces that led to Delta’s decision to shutter its subsidiary will prepare others for a similar fate.
After a decade of explosive growth, the regional airline industry has virtually stagnated over the past couple of years, while consolidation and bankruptcies have seen the Regional Airline Association’s airline member ranks shrink to around 30 from nearly double that number in 2003. Meanwhile, the 50-seat jets that drove the growth of the regional airline industry for so long have turned into liabilities. High fuel prices have seen to that. Unfortunately for the regionals, restrictions on the number and size of airplanes they may operate haven’t lifted to the point to allow for enough cost-efficient replacements to offset the loss in seating capacity. Mainline pilot unions have seen to that.
Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with New Jersey Monthly magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for Aviation International News in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.
