Compass Airlines (North America)
Encyclopedia
Compass Airlines is a regional airline headquartered at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Fort Snelling, Hennepin County
, Minnesota
; prior to December 16, 2009, it was headquartered in unincorporated
Fairfax County
, Virginia
, United States
, east of the Chantilly
CDP. The airline launched inaugural service with a single Bombardier CRJ200LR
aircraft under the Northwest Airlink
(now Delta Connection
) brand between Minneapolis/St. Paul
and Washington, D.C.
on May 2, 2007. On August 21, 2007, it began flying two Embraer
175 76-passenger aircraft, and expanded to 36 aircraft by December, 2008. In July, 2010, the airline was purchased from Delta Airlines and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Trans States Holdings
.
On March 1, 2011 Delta Air Lines, along with Trans States Holdings announced plans to add an additional six E-170 aircraft to the Compass Airlines operation. The six aircraft deliveries began in May 2011, to continue through the 2nd fiscal quarter of 2012.
and its pilots union, the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA). The Northwest Airlines pilot group was asked to give relief on a section of their collective bargaining agreement governing "scope" which protects pilot jobs by ensuring that an airline's customers are flown by the employees of that airline. The pilots eventually agreed to a concession on the scope of their contract allowing a limited number of 76 seat aircraft to be flown by outsourced pilots working for a subcontractor
regional airline
. In exchange for their concession the Northwest Airlines pilots demanded in return that the pilots of these new aircraft would eventually "flow-up" into mainline pilot jobs at Northwest Airlines, and that Northwest Airlines pilots would retain the ability to "flow-down" into the newly subcontracted pilot jobs in the event that Northwest Airlines were to furlough
the mainline pilots.
In order to adapt to the agreement, and fulfill a need to serve the regional markets with smaller, more efficient aircraft and a dramatically reduced wage labor force, Northwest bought the operating certificate
of bankrupt Independence Air
on March 10, 2006, for $2 million. As a result, Compass' operations are limited to 76-seat aircraft or less, due to the language in the pilot contract at the mainline
carrier. (During the concept phase, the subsidiary was known as "NewCo
".)
On September 28, 2006, Compass Airlines officially received approval from the United States Department of Transportation
to begin operations. On April 5, 2007, Compass Airlines received FAA certification to begin commercial passenger operations with a CRJ-200
Compass' aircraft were not a direct replacement for the aging Douglas DC-9 aircraft flown by Northwest. However, they have a lower cost per available seat mile, making them more efficient to operate.
On May 2, 2007, the company announced their first successful revenue flight with the Canadair 50-seat CRJ, from Washington Dulles airport to Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport., which maintained the operating certificate. Compass implemented Embraer operations on August 21, 2007.
On July 1, 2010, Delta Air Lines
announced that it sold Compass Airlines to Trans States Holdings
for US$20.5 million.
Compass Airlines has bases (Flight Crews and Maintenance) in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, Detroit, MI, Louisville, KY.
All Compass Airlines aircraft are operated as Delta Connection
. Flight numbers range between 5600 - 5889.
in Louisville, KY, to be completed by the fall of 2008. The new hangar has three aircraft bays to service its fleet of 76-seat Embraer E-175 and E-170 regional jet aircraft.
The project is planned to be about 136000 square feet (12,634.8 m²), and will be built on 4.8 acres (19,424.9 m²).
The $9.9 million project created about 70 full-time jobs with an annual payroll of $3.1 million. The jobs include skilled mechanics, management and technical-services employees.
The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority in Frankfort, KY granted the airline preliminary approval for $2 million in state tax incentives for up to 10 years just for using their city as their hangar location.
(AFA-CWA). The pilots are covered by a collective bargaining agreement negotiated at the time the airline was created in 2007; the flight attendants elected AFA on November 18, 2009 by a two-to-one margin.
The flight attendants are in negotiations for their first contract. Issues included substandard wages, benefits and working conditions, and specifically unfair labor practices, such as terminations and unequal treatment within the labor group.
On August 25, 2010, Compass Airlines fired a flight attendant after she appeared on a local television program admitting publicly that she qualified for food stamps, even though she was a full-time employee of the airline.
Hennepin County, Minnesota
Hennepin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Minnesota, named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. As of 2010 the population was 1,152,425. Its county seat is Minneapolis. It is by far the most populous county in Minnesota; more than one in five Minnesotans live...
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
; prior to December 16, 2009, it was headquartered in unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
Fairfax County
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, east of the Chantilly
Chantilly, Virginia
Chantilly is an unincorporated community located in western Fairfax County and southeastern Loudoun County of Northern Virginia. Recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census designated place , the community population was 23,039 as of the 2010 census -- down from 41,041 in 2000, due to the...
CDP. The airline launched inaugural service with a single Bombardier CRJ200LR
Bombardier CRJ200
The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 are a family of regional airliner manufactured by Bombardier, and based on the Canadair Challenger business jet.-Development:...
aircraft under the Northwest Airlink
Northwest Airlink
Northwest Airlink was the trade name of Northwest Airlines' regional airline service, which flew turboprop and regional jet aircraft from Northwest's domestic hubs in Minneapolis, Detroit, and Memphis...
(now Delta Connection
Delta Connection
Delta Connection is the name under which a number of individually owned regional airlines and one wholly owned regional carrier operate short and medium haul routes in association with Delta Air Lines Inc...
) brand between Minneapolis/St. Paul
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport
Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport is the largest and busiest airport in the five-state upper Midwest region of Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.-Overview:...
and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
on May 2, 2007. On August 21, 2007, it began flying two Embraer
Embraer
Embraer S.A. is a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate that produces commercial, military, and executive aircraft and provides aeronautical services....
175 76-passenger aircraft, and expanded to 36 aircraft by December, 2008. In July, 2010, the airline was purchased from Delta Airlines and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Trans States Holdings
Trans States Holdings
Trans States Holdings is a privately owned holding company of three certified regional airlines: Compass Airlines, GoJet Airlines and Trans States Airlines. The holding company is headquartered in Brigeton, Missouri near the Lambert-St...
.
On March 1, 2011 Delta Air Lines, along with Trans States Holdings announced plans to add an additional six E-170 aircraft to the Compass Airlines operation. The six aircraft deliveries began in May 2011, to continue through the 2nd fiscal quarter of 2012.
History
Compass Airlines was formed as a result of a contract dispute between Northwest AirlinesNorthwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines, Inc. was a major United States airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines by a merger approved on October 29, 2008, making Delta the largest airline in the world...
and its pilots union, the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA). The Northwest Airlines pilot group was asked to give relief on a section of their collective bargaining agreement governing "scope" which protects pilot jobs by ensuring that an airline's customers are flown by the employees of that airline. The pilots eventually agreed to a concession on the scope of their contract allowing a limited number of 76 seat aircraft to be flown by outsourced pilots working for a subcontractor
Subcontractor
A subcontractor is an individual or in many cases a business that signs a contract to perform part or all of the obligations of another's contract....
regional airline
Regional airline
Regional airlines are airlines that operate regional aircraft to provide passenger air service to communities without sufficient demand to attract mainline service...
. In exchange for their concession the Northwest Airlines pilots demanded in return that the pilots of these new aircraft would eventually "flow-up" into mainline pilot jobs at Northwest Airlines, and that Northwest Airlines pilots would retain the ability to "flow-down" into the newly subcontracted pilot jobs in the event that Northwest Airlines were to furlough
Furlough
In the United States a furlough is a temporary unpaid leave of some employees due to special needs of a company, which may be due to economic conditions at the specific employer or in the economy as a whole...
the mainline pilots.
In order to adapt to the agreement, and fulfill a need to serve the regional markets with smaller, more efficient aircraft and a dramatically reduced wage labor force, Northwest bought the operating certificate
Operating certificate
Operating certificate is a category of license issued by a government agency allowing an individual or company to provide a controlled type of service. These certificates are generally issued for a limited time period...
of bankrupt Independence Air
Independence Air
Independence Air was a low-cost airline, owned by FLYi, Inc., headquartered in the Loudoun Gateway Corporate Center in Dulles, unincorporated Loudoun County, Virginia, United States that operated from 1989 until 2006. Its route network focused on the East Coast of the United States, but it also...
on March 10, 2006, for $2 million. As a result, Compass' operations are limited to 76-seat aircraft or less, due to the language in the pilot contract at the mainline
Mainline (flight)
A mainline flight is a flight operated by an airline's main operating unit, rather than by regional alliances, regional code-shares or regional subsidiaries...
carrier. (During the concept phase, the subsidiary was known as "NewCo
NewCo
NewCo is a generic name used to refer to corporate spin-offs and startups before they are assigned a final name. In some cases the new company retains the name "Newco".- Examples :* 3M→Imation* AT&T→NCR* Bayer→Lanxess* BP→Innovene...
".)
On September 28, 2006, Compass Airlines officially received approval from the United States Department of Transportation
United States Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operation on April 1, 1967...
to begin operations. On April 5, 2007, Compass Airlines received FAA certification to begin commercial passenger operations with a CRJ-200
Compass' aircraft were not a direct replacement for the aging Douglas DC-9 aircraft flown by Northwest. However, they have a lower cost per available seat mile, making them more efficient to operate.
On May 2, 2007, the company announced their first successful revenue flight with the Canadair 50-seat CRJ, from Washington Dulles airport to Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport., which maintained the operating certificate. Compass implemented Embraer operations on August 21, 2007.
On July 1, 2010, Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a major airline based in the United States and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline operates an extensive domestic and international network serving all continents except Antarctica. Delta and its subsidiaries operate over 4,000 flights every day...
announced that it sold Compass Airlines to Trans States Holdings
Trans States Holdings
Trans States Holdings is a privately owned holding company of three certified regional airlines: Compass Airlines, GoJet Airlines and Trans States Airlines. The holding company is headquartered in Brigeton, Missouri near the Lambert-St...
for US$20.5 million.
Compass Airlines has bases (Flight Crews and Maintenance) in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, Detroit, MI, Louisville, KY.
Fleet
The Compass Airlines fleet includes the following aircraft (as of October 2011):| Aircraft | Total | Orders | Passengers (F/Y) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Embraer 175LR | 36 | 0 | 12/64 | |
| Embraer 170 | 4 | 2 | 6/64 | Ex-Virgin Australia |
All Compass Airlines aircraft are operated as Delta Connection
Delta Connection
Delta Connection is the name under which a number of individually owned regional airlines and one wholly owned regional carrier operate short and medium haul routes in association with Delta Air Lines Inc...
. Flight numbers range between 5600 - 5889.
Maintenance Operations
In September, 2007, Compass announced that construction of a new hangar at Louisville International AirportLouisville International Airport
Louisville International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport centrally located in the city of Louisville in Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA. The airport covers 1,200 acres and has three runways. Its IATA airport code SDF is based on the airport's former name, Standiford Field...
in Louisville, KY, to be completed by the fall of 2008. The new hangar has three aircraft bays to service its fleet of 76-seat Embraer E-175 and E-170 regional jet aircraft.
The project is planned to be about 136000 square feet (12,634.8 m²), and will be built on 4.8 acres (19,424.9 m²).
The $9.9 million project created about 70 full-time jobs with an annual payroll of $3.1 million. The jobs include skilled mechanics, management and technical-services employees.
The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority in Frankfort, KY granted the airline preliminary approval for $2 million in state tax incentives for up to 10 years just for using their city as their hangar location.
Labor Relations
Both the Pilot and Flight Attendant groups are unionized, with the Pilots being represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, and the Flight Attendants represented by the Association of Flight AttendantsAssociation of Flight Attendants
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA is a union representing Flight Attendants in the United States. In 2011, AFA represents nearly 60,000 Flight Attendants at 24 airlines, making it the world's largest Flight Attendant union. Focused 100% on Flight Attendant issues, AFA has been the leader in...
(AFA-CWA). The pilots are covered by a collective bargaining agreement negotiated at the time the airline was created in 2007; the flight attendants elected AFA on November 18, 2009 by a two-to-one margin.
The flight attendants are in negotiations for their first contract. Issues included substandard wages, benefits and working conditions, and specifically unfair labor practices, such as terminations and unequal treatment within the labor group.
On August 25, 2010, Compass Airlines fired a flight attendant after she appeared on a local television program admitting publicly that she qualified for food stamps, even though she was a full-time employee of the airline.
Incidents
- On May 8, 2008 Compass Airlines Flight 2040 bound for Regina, SaskatchewanRegina, SaskatchewanRegina is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province and a cultural and commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. It is governed by Regina City Council. Regina is the cathedral city of the Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox...
from Minneapolis with 74 passengers and 4 crew on board was forced to land in FargoFargo, North DakotaFargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...
, North DakotaNorth DakotaNorth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
after a fire broke out in the restroom. The plane landed at 11:00 pm; no injuries to passengers were reported. A week after the incident, a 19-year-old flight attendant was charged with starting the fire.. He pleaded not guilty, but before trial, he fled to MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. He was arrested in Mexico April 5, 2011 and will be extradited to the US to stand trial. . - On November 15, 2010 Compass Airlines Flight 5887 bound for Missoula, MontanaMissoula, MontanaMissoula is a city located in western Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. The 2010 Census put the population of Missoula at 66,788 and the population of Missoula County at 109,299. Missoula is the principal city of the Missoula Metropolitan Area...
from Minneapolis with 76 passengers and 4 crew on board was forced to return to Minneapolis after the aircraft received substantial damage when it collided with a flock of birdsBird strikeA bird strike—sometimes called birdstrike, avian ingestion , bird hit, or BASH —is a collision between an airborne animal and a man-made vehicle, especially aircraft...
. The plane landed 22 minutes after departure; no injuries to passengers were reported.