1. Historical Context

Comair, a regional carrier servicing the East of the United States, was founded in 1977 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The mission of the company was "to provide a high frequency of flights between cities that lacked efficient quality air service". In the fiscal year ending March 31, 1998, Comair transported a record of 5.4 million passengers. Comair is therefore a prime example of an airline company created after the deregulation of the American air transportation industry. The airline has experienced consistent growth and now has the busiest hub in the Midwest (Cincinnati) and is the 2^nd busiest regional airline in the United States.

In 1981 Comair associated itself with Delta by integrating their booking system, thereby allowing each enterprise 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. Today, both airlines have established strong hub-and -spoke networks and work together to maximize passenger service. In 2000, Delta fully acquired Comair, which now acts as a subdiary of Delta Connections.

2. Growth Strategies

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 most 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.

3. Hub-and-Spoke Strategy

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.