COMPASS AIRLINES 2007-2020

COMPASS AIRLINES  was first formed as a fully owned subsidiary of NORTHWEST as a result of a contract dispute between ALPA and NW. The company became a subsidiary into DELTA AIRLINES after the merger with NORTHWEST in 2008 and sold to TRANS-STATES HOLDINGS in July 2010 , together with the sales of MESABA AIRLINES to PINNACLE  AIRLINES as an effort to streamline the numof regional airlines operating within the DELTA groupber

NW acquired the AOC of Independence Air in March 2006 and services began on May 2,2007 with a flight from MSP to DCA , on a CRJ200 leased from MESABA AIRLINES  

On August 21,2007 the first 76-pax EMB175 joined the fleet .

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A Northwest Airlink (Compass Airlines) Embraer E170-200LR shortly after takeoff from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport on February 28, 2009 by Calebrew,CC BY-SA 3.0, Link  (wikepedia)

Compass Airlines Delta Connection Embraer 175 Salt Lake City By redlegsfan21( https://www.flickr.com/people/redlegsfan21), CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

On March 20,2015 , it operated for American Airlines under the American brand .

In August 2019, in its effort to reduce the number of regional airlines operating under the Delta connection brand, DELTA terminated its agreement with Trans-States. 

In January 2020, The PHX base was closed followed in February 2020 by the  SEA  crew base

The coup de grace was given by the COVID-19 pandemic that paralyzed air transport.

The last flight was on April 5,2020 as AA6407 operating TUL-LAX segment and the company was shut down completely on 7 April.

The fleet consisted of 56 EMB175 of which 36 were operated under the DL connection brand and 20 by American Eagle.

The fleet would be disposed as follows :

10 to SKYWEST

26 to REPUBLIC AIRLINE

20 to ENVOY AIR

In 2007, the company carried 148,000 passengers exclusively out of Northwest hub at MSP. The map below shows the network in December 2007.

International flights to Canada accounted only for 8% of passenger transported and for13.4% Revenue-Passenger Miles

Evolution of Traffic in 2007

In 2008, the company expanded its operations to  include all NW Hubs .

Flights from Detroit started in February with first destinations Nashville, Norfolk and Manchester. Flights from Memphis started in January with flights to Boston

 

2009 sees the number of passengers increase by almost 2-fold (+95%) but with a slight decrease in load factor from 79 to 78%.

 

2010 

After the acquisition of Northwest by Delta in 2008, the ;atter began scaling back its operations at Memphis from a high 20.1% market share  in 2008  to a 5% in 2010 with only 8 flights from Memphis to DFW , YYZ,  and MSP in December

ATL becomes a mini-hub in February with first flights to MDW, CLT, IAH and SDF.

LGA starts as a hub in September with flights to CMH, BNA, JAX, MCI,SAV, STL & TUL and grabs 3.4% of the market share but with the lowest Load factor among  the 5 hubs.

2011

LGA operations are scaled back and terminated in July but DCA makes its entry in January with flights to STL but operations are terminated in December 2011.Atlanta hub registers  the highest load factot 86.5% . The erosion of DTW's market share contonues in 2011 with 10.8% market share.

 

2012

LGA returns to the network timidly in March but in full force from  July .

SLC operates as a hub from January to September  

2013

Two major hubs LGA and  MSP concentrate 83.9% of RPM  and about 80% of both flights and passengers transported . LAX is introduced as a hub on September 2013 with flights to Kansas City and to San Francisco capturing 3.2% market share for the year.

 

 

2014

The company was able to fly 6.5% more passengers during 2014 while increasing marginally  (0.4%) the seats offered  resulting in a jump in load factor from 76.8% to 81%

LAX market share increases dramatically to 20% and the SEA base launched in February 2014 manaes to grab 9.4% of the market

2015

Once again LGA hub is dismantled but the new agreement to provide flights from LAX on the behalf if American Airlines skyrockets the market share to 48% of  R.P.M and SEA almost  doubles its market share from 9.4% to 18.3%. Passenger number skyrockets by 23% to 4,964,656.

2016

A year of record as passengers have crossed the 6.000.000 mark , LAX and SEA concentrate 72.8% of RPM. LAS  becomes a full fledged hub during the year concentrating on short routes to California.

 

Below is a table showing  the 20 most travelled routes in Compass's system during 2016

2017

The operations of the company show a slight decrease of passengers transported  -7.4%, ASM -9.6% and flights -7.4%. The decrease is not evenly distributed across the system : the largest drops of carried passengers  are concentrated on NW ex hubs  DTW -30.8%. MSP a staggering -78.3%  a DL hub  SLC -21% reflecting the policy of DL to reduce the number of airlines operating under the  DELTA connection. as a matter if fact, compass airlines will cease to serve DTW in September with last flights to SDF , MSP  Compass Airlines base base is closed In November with last flights to DFW and SDF.

If DTW & MSP hubs experienced a serious drop in their activities as expected, LAX saw an increase of 1.4%, LAS of 4.1% and SEA of 11.6%

2018

Activities rebound to reach the 2016 level with SLC concentrating 12.1% of market share  whereas traffic increased from 248000  passengers to 749000 , LAX experiences a slight decrease of 14% in ASM from 2.924.000.000 to 2.514.092.000

 2019

DELTA terminated its agreement with Trans-States and its last hub SLC closes in December with last flights to LAX. Operations are marginally impacted  and SLC holds the highest LF among the company's operation at 87.9%.

2020

COVID19 precipitated the closing of the company . The table below show the LF for the first day of April when Compass Airlines was still in operations. The dramatic numbers speak by themselves.

Last operating routes April 2020

Passenger evolution from 2007 to 2020

COMPASS AIRLINES PROFITABILITY 2007-2020

The company was profitable 11 years out of its 14 of  its lifetime. The first loss was recorded in 2015 when it started operating for American Airlines and 2019 when Delta Airlines did not renew its contract with Compass