FAA Honors Comair with Diamond Award for 12th Consecutive Year

CINCINNATI, June 28, 2006 – For the 12th year in a row, Comair has been awarded one of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) most prestigious honors – the Diamond Award – for excellence in aviation maintenance training.

“It says a great deal about the professionalism and commitment of our maintenance team when you win this prestigious award for 12 years running,” said Allen Messick, vice president of Maintenance. “As prestigious as it is for our airline to be honored with the Diamond Award, the real testament of our dedication to safety and operational integrity is our strong operational numbers and the increase in continuous training participation.”

In 2005, more than 80 percent of Comair’s aviation maintenance technicians (AMT) completed the continuous training required to participate in the FAA’s program. That is up from 72 percent participation in the previous year. Altogether, Comair AMTs completed nearly 32,000 hours of safety compliance and technical training in 2005 to qualify for this year’s award, more than double the number of hours (14,000) completed in 2004.

Implemented in 1991, the FAA’s AMT award program is an incentive for individual maintenance technicians to complete recurrent and initial training. To qualify for the FAA Diamond Award, at least 25 percent of an airline’s eligible maintenance technicians must pass specialized, ongoing training during a 12-month period.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to present this award to Comair for its dedication to the AMT program and continued improvement in aviation safety through education,” said Carolyn Blum, Regional Administrator for the FAA Southern Region.

Included in the AMT award program are four levels of individual honors for maintenance technicians, starting with the highest individual designation, Ruby, and moving on to Gold, Silver and Bronze. There are 192 Ruby winners on the Comair maintenance team this year, 67 Gold, 103 Silver and 92 Bronze.

Comair is a Delta Connection carrier and wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines. Based at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Comair has a team of more than 6,400 dedicated aviation professionals who operate more than 885 flights a day to 108 cities in the United States, Canada and the Bahamas. Currently, the airline operates an all-jet fleet of 168 Bombardier CRJ regional jets. For more information, please visit www.comair.com.

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Nick Miller

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Comair

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