Comair grounded for another week

Pilots strike after three years of "fruitless" talks

Comair, second largest US regional airline, has cancelled all flights until 5 April as the pilots strike entered its third day.

Pilots at the subsidiary of Delta Air Lines went on strike on Monday over pay, job security, scheduling and retirement plans and neither side appears to be prepared to backdown.

"We're prepared to go a long, long, long time if need be," said Delta Connection President David Siebenburgen told US press on Wednesday.

Delta Air Lines is trying to accommodate stranded passengers and Northwest Airlines has said it would honour Comair tickets.

No new negotiations have been scheduled between the pilot's union and the airline since they broke down in Washington on Sunday and pilots went on strike on Monday.

This is the first of a number of strikes expected at all four major airlines in the US over the coming months.

Comair Facts

Flies to 95 cities in US, Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas

Carries more than 8m passengers a year

Founded in 1977

This is the first strike by its pilots

Comair's 1,350 pilots say they want a company pension, more rest time between flights, higher pay and the pay for all hours they are on the job, not just flying time.

Comair's offering

On 19 March the airline offered pilots a contract that gave them the same company pension available to other Comair employees and a pay rise that would have boosted senior pilots wages from $66,000 to $96,000.

A rare sight as Comair cancels all flights until next week

The offer was rejected by the union as only 40 Comair pilots have the 18 years experience needed to be eligible for the top pay.

The union says there are about 420 pilots with two years of experience or less who are paid less than $30,000 annually.

"We went to Washington DC this weekend to get an agreement and are disappointed that we couldn't work together to avert a strike," said Comair president Randy Rademacher in a statement.

Problems at Delta

Pilots at Delta, the parent company of Comair, voted overwhelmingly on 12 February to go out on strike as well.

The number three airline in the US employs 9,800 pilots and has been negotiating a pay deal since November 2000.

The National Mediation board has offered arbitration and the pilots union will decide on 29 March whether to accept the offer. If it is rejected they could strike by late April.

If the union ends arbitration it could prompt President George W. Bush to use his strike busting powers to appoint a presidential emergency board which would delay any strike for up to 60 days.

President Bush has already indicated he wants to prevent strikes by airlines.