Comair Inc.'s pilots agreed to extend labor talks through Feb. 2, avoiding a strike that could have started this weekend at the regional carrier for Delta Air Lines Inc.
Negotiations will resume in early January, Paul Denke, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, said in a phone interview Friday. The pilots had threatened to strike today if Cincinnati-based Comair acted on its plan to unilaterally impose almost $16 million in annual pay and benefit cuts.
The 1,500-member pilots union is the last group of Comair employees still negotiating concessions, which the carrier says it needs to emerge from Chapter 11 protection. Its flight attendants and ground workers have agreed to accept lower pay.
"It's time to get the deal done," Denke said.
Comair is seeking to reduce annual costs by $42 million. The pilots question Comair's need for further concessions, saying the airline expects to post a $50 million profit for 2006. The average pilot salary is $59,600 and the average pay cut would be $6,400, according to Comair.
The carrier, with more than 800 flights a day to 103 cities in the U.S., Canada and the Bahamas, got bankruptcy court permission to impose the cuts after a previous agreement with the pilots fell through.