It is no secret that the carnage of a legacy airline scale is wreaking havoc on the ranks of many present air charter captains. Using only Delta as an example, RSVPair knows of five captains, all operating Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftains in the greater ATL area who watch carefully as their dinosaur alma mater battles for liquidity and ultimately (we hope) profitability. With the shutting down of Song however, one can only wonder how much waste was initiated by the big people at the top of the pyramid. Whose idea was it to make a new brand, with new paint jobs, a new company, a new pricing structure and then lose money for a little while only to be shut down by the head office? Not sure, but you can be sure that their retirement is not being cut and that their pay has probably remained constant.

This news made us think of all the captains now flying Part 135 as their retirement checks from Delta dwindle in size and frequency.

In Atlanta, not far from the mother ship of Delta Airlines, live several RSVPair customers who are beginning to contemplate the advantages of coalescing into a fighting unit: Atlanta Air Taxi. Dan Waters of Falcon Air is very excited about the possibility of integrating his business with Jerry Shockey of Affordable Charters. The interesting part of this post is that as we expanded our search for interested parties in Atlanta, we came across not two, but five former Delta captains, flying Navajos under Part 135 and parked within 50 miles of KPDK. While the concept of working together, coordination, and a common brand is not new, this type of initiative is indeed new to the world of air charter and air taxi. Not too far away in Leesburg, FL, Southeast Air Taxi also claims a former Delta captain as its founder and pilot. Florida may be equally saturated with Delta captains, some of whom no doubt are looking to charter as a next step.

So, the moral of the story might be, out of the ashes, and the pain of collapse, comes something newer, better, faster, and leaner. While some may chuckle that the aircraft of choice is a 20 plus year old Navajo, the fact is that a Cessna Caravan or PC-12 is not a big step for these carriers - certainly a lot easier to fly.