Labor Talks Extended To April 17

US Bankruptcy Court Judge Adlai Hardin decided Monday to defer for one week his ruling on allowing Comair to toss out its existing contract with flight attendants for one week, after he received requests from both sides for more time.

Reuters reports Hardin agreed to postpone any decision on the contract until at least April 17.

As has been reported in Aero-News, regional carrier Comair has taken a page from parent company Delta Air Line's playbook in its labor negotiations, by asking the bankruptcy court for permission to toss out its existing contracts with its workers in order to drastically cut costs. In Comair's case, the holdouts are the company's flight attendants -- not pilots.

Comair has had similar luck, too, with that strategy -- with the airline's flight attendants threatening to strike the moment such a decision is rendered.

Delta's pilots have already approved a strike should a federal arbitration panel rule that Delta can toss out their contract. Union officials have said April 17 is the first day the pilots would strike -- a move Delta says would effectively end the carrier's existence.

FMI: www.comair.com, www.teamsters.org