ATLANTA -- Delta plans to acquire Cincinnati-based Comair, a Delta
Connection carrier and one of the largest regional airlines in the
world, for $1.8 billion.
Comair will be the second regional airline that Delta has
acquired; earlier this year, it bought Atlantic Southeast Airlines,
its Atlanta-based Delta Connection partner. Delta currently owns
about 22% of Comair.
Delta president Leo Mullin said the regional line's leadership
"will not change significantly." Its chairman, David Mueller, will
remain through the transition; afterward, he will serve as an
adviser to Delta and as chairman of the Delta Connection Carrier
Advisory Committee.
Comair president David Siebenburgen will head the Delta
Connection network, overseeing Comair and ASA. Skip Barnette will
continue to head up ASA and will report to Siebenburgen. No
integration of work forces or seniority lists is planned.
Comair was a pioneer in the use of regional jets and will have
an all-jet fleet within a few years, Mueller said.
Markets in which prop service is converted to regional jets are
the fastest-growing airline markets in the country.
Despite the combined 85% market share that the two carriers
enjoy in Cincinnati, Mullin said he anticipated no objections to
the acquisition from the Justice Department. As was the case with
ASA, he said, the two carriers operate end-to-end, not overlapping
route systems.