Locking yourself into inflexible contracts with third party carriers and only being able to cut capacity via your wholly owneds leads to the long term spiral Comair experienced. I believe they got to the point that the most junior FO was 1999 hire. With virtually every crewmember topped out on pay scale and infrastructure for a much larger airline than they had become, there was no way Comair could stay in business. ASA was lucky to be sold off while still a desirable and viable merger candidate.

Ah, aviation!