Compass Airlines began service with its new 76-seat Embraer (ERJ) ERJ 175 on Tuesday. Flight 2036 was bound from Minneapolis (MSP) to Omaha, the first flight for the airline that has been using CRJ 200s to fly between its base at Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC to MSP. Its second of 36 ERJ 175s will serve MSP-Dallas Fort Worth, Missoula and Nashville. The airline expects to have 10 ERJs in service by year’s end. Detroit will be added in January while Green Bay begins in September.
President John Bendoraitis told Regional Aviation News the fledgling carrier now has 155 employees which will grow to 300 by the end of the year and to 800 by the end of 2008, two thirds of which will be pilots and flight attendants. Compass was certificated in April and launched operations in May. The first aircraft, in a 12-+-64-seat configuration, will fly at MSP-Omaha-MSP-Missoula-MSP route while the second will fly MSP-Nashville-MSP-DFW-MSP-Nashville-MSP.
Bendoraitis said the delivery schedule for the rest of the 36-aircraft Embraer order will be two per month for a total of 10 this year with the balance coming next year with each going into service within a week of delivery.
The airline has been successful in recruiting experienced pilots because of its new aircraft and expected growth rate and the ability of pilots to move from first officer to captain in short order as well as the ability to flow up to Northwest Airlines (NWA). “We are not immune to the pilot shortage,” he said, “but we are not experiencing any pain now.”
So far in August on time departures have been 71.5 percent while load factor has reached between 94 and 96 percent, not hard to do with a 50-seat aircraft fleet and twice daily between Dulles and MSP.
Thus far, he said, there have been no major issues arising from the launch of operations. “We’ve had typical growth,” he said. “We’re adding lots of staff and the challenge is to manage rapid growth. From a financial perspective, we are on firm footing.”
He also indicated that there have been no big changes to the original business plan which had 1,700 separate action items. “We’ve had an aggressive schedule but we have been able to meet it and we are right where we expected to be,” he said.