Compass Airlines, a new subsidiary of Northwest, plans to launch service in October by flying a 50-seat regional jet from Minnaeapolis to Washington Dulles Airport, as the Star Tribune reports. That plane and route was previously operated by Mesaba Airlines. While Compass is a subsidiary, it will be paid in the same manner as Mesaba and Pinnacle Airlines, who operate Northwest Airlink Service.
In the first year, Compass will only operate four regional jets, although they will obviously be expanding this to additional flights. Northwest plans to allocate new 76-seat regional jets to them in the near future. The Air Line Pilots Association, the pilots union, has negotiated the offering of jobs at Compass first to furloughed Northwest pilots. The Department of Transportation has given preliminary approval on Compass’s flight certificate and final approval is likely soon.
Considering labor issues at Mesaba, and Northwest itself, it is interesting to see how their experiment in regional airline subsidiaries will work it. It hasn’t done so well at Delta.