Compass Airlines

What is Compass Airlines!?
Compass Airlines, LLC, is a regional airline headquartered in Delta Air Lines Building C at Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport in Fort Snelling, Hennepin County, Minnesota; prior to December 16, 2009, it was headquartered in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, east of the Chantilly CDP. The airline launched inaugural service with a single Bombardier CRJ200LR aircraft under the Northwest Airlink (now Delta Connection) brand between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Washington, D.C. on May 2, 2007. On August 21, 2007, it began flying two Embraer 175 76-passenger aircraft, and expanded to 36 aircraft by December 2008.

In July 2010, the airline was purchased from Delta Air Lines and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Trans States Holdings. At the time, the airline was the only remaining airline of the former Northwest Group.

In June 2019, Delta Airlines announced it would not renew its contract with Compass.

In March 2020, Compass announced that it would be ceasing operations in April 2020. Compass ceased operations on April 5, 2020 citing reduced travel demand stemming from the 2019-2020 Covid-19 outbreak, along with their ownership’s failed attempts to secure additional flying.

Early Days...
Compass Airlines was formed as a result of a contract dispute between Northwest Airlines and its pilots' union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). The Northwest Airlines pilot group was asked to give relief on a section of their collective bargaining agreement governing "scope", which protects pilot jobs by ensuring that an airline's customers are flown by the employees of that airline. The pilots eventually agreed to a concession on the scope of their contract allowing a limited number of 76-seat aircraft to be flown by outsourced pilots working for a subcontractor regional airline. In exchange for their concession the Northwest Airlines pilots demanded in return that the pilots of these new aircraft would eventually "flow-up" into mainline pilot jobs at Northwest Airlines, and that Northwest Airlines pilots would retain the ability to "flow-down" into the newly subcontracted pilot jobs in the event that Northwest Airlines were to furlough the mainline pilots.

In order to adapt to the agreement, and fulfill a need to serve the regional markets with smaller, more efficient aircraft and a dramatically reduced wage labor force, Northwest bought the operating certificate of bankrupt Independence Air on March 10, 2006 for $2 million. During the concept phase, the subsidiary was known as "NewCo". Compass' operations are limited to 76-seat aircraft or less, due to the language in the pilot contract at the mainline carrier.

On September 28, 2006, Compass Airlines officially received approval from the United States Department of Transportation to begin operations. On April 5, 2007, Compass Airlines received FAA certification to begin commercial passenger operations with a CRJ-200

Ceasing operations
In January 2020, Compass announced that it would be closing its Phoenix crew base. The following month, the airline announced in a memo to employees that its Seattle-Tacoma crew base would also be closing.

In March 2020, due to the reduction in flying in response to the COVID-19 virus Compass announced that it will be ceasing operations on April 7, 2020, however Compass ceased operations two days earlier due to reduced travel demand stemming from the 2019-2020 COVID-19 outbreak, along with their ownership’s failed attempts to secure additional flying.

Final Fleet
As of March 2020, the Compass Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Fleet notes
All Embraer 170 & 175 aircraft were WiFi-equipped, powered by GoGo Inflight, featuring streaming internet and inflight entertainment.

All Northwest-owned Embraer 175s were delivered with some structural modifications to enable an upgrade to a E-175AR (Advanced Range) model.[18] The Northwest aircraft also featured the structural support for the installation of a Heads-up display, however this equipment was never installed. Unique to the North American market, these E175s were certified with a MGTOW of 89,000 lbs, as was allowed by the Northwest Airlines pilot scope clause, at the time of purchase. Additionally, they also featured non-standard cabin furnishings, such as additional galley storage and two-additional cabin jumpseats, to facilitate commuting employees and Flight Attendant training and checking.