Source: Comair

Comair Air Transport Network

Comair, a regional carrier servicing the East of the United States, was founded in 1977 in Cincinnati, Ohio to provide air services between underserviced cities. Comair is therefore a prime example of an airline company created after the deregulation of the American air transportation industry.

In 1981 Comair integrated its booking system with Delta, thereby allowing each company to optimize their connections and reduce the connecting times. In 1984, Comair became a Delta Connection carrier and in 1986, Delta bought 20% of Comair's shares. Both airlines have established hub-and-spoke networks to maximize passenger service. In 2000, Delta fully acquired Comair, which now acts as a subdiary of Delta Connections.

In 1981 the company initiated important growth strategies with the purchase of new aircraft as well as its entrance onto the stock market. Comair was the first regional airline to purchase jets which allowed Comair to considerably expand its routing system. The purchase of medium-sized, high performance aircraft was a strategy used to increase the market share with such planes as the SAAB/Scania SF340a (1984), the Embracer EMB 120RT Brasilias (1988) and more recently the Canadair Regional Jet (1993). The first two were propeller planes with a passenger capacity of 30, while the Canadair jet boards 50 passengers and is very silent. In addition to being relatively cheaper than larger commercial aircraft, these planes enable an increase in the frequency of service which has proved to be an efficient strategy for destinations located less than 1,000 km away and generating a lower number of passengers.

A key element of the airline is the hub-and-spoke structure of its network. This structure offers some incontestable advantages in using this strategy. For instance, a city of average size (about 150,000 inhabitants) rarely generates enough passengers to justify a service towards several destinations. With the hub-and-spoke structure it is possible to consolidate all the passengers generated by a city toward the hub, where they can reach their respective destinations by consolidating with passengers coming from other origins, but bound to the same destination. Comair has two major hubs, Cincinnati and Orlando, where the bulk of the traffic converges.

The above map illustrates the two main hubs of Comair, Cincinnati and Orlando. They represent connecting places to Delta's national and international networks. Comair thus insures a maximal territorial cover with 80 airports serviced in the most developed regions of the United States. Main urban centers are often serviced by using smaller airports such as Midway in Chicago, Manchester in Boston, and White Plains in New York.