Comair on Tuesday cleared the final regulatory hurdle to restarting operations next week, with federal transportation officials giving informal approval of the plan fromsafety and financial standpoints.

        The Erlanger-based airline is set to resume limited operations Monday, the first revenue-generating flights at the regional carrier since its pilots went on strike March 26.

        That strike was settled with the passage of a new contract by the airline's approximately 1,200 pilots. Comair then immediately announced it was launching service July 2 to 26 cities using 10 planes.

        “We're pleased we could all work so smoothly together and get back to what we all want to be doing: flying customers,” Comair spokeswoman Meghan Glynn said.

        On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Transportation gave verbal approval of Comair's start-up plan filed Monday. The agency granted a waiver of its normal 45-day notification period for starting commercial service.

        As required, Comair submitted financial documents proving its ability to stay in business, but the company also asked transportation officials to keep those documents confidential for proprietary reasons.

        Transportation officials had not ruled on that motion but would not release the documents Tuesday. They are expected to keep the financial data secret, as they did for Northwest Airlines when it restarted operations in 1998 following a pilots strike there.

        Transportation Department spokesman Bill Mosely said formal approval could come as soon as today, with a decision on the confidentiality request to be decided soon.

        In addition to the financial data, the company's plan for ensuring that its planes are ready and its pilots are up to date in their training has been supervised by the Federal Aviation Administration since before the strike ended.

        “We have no reservations about Comair resuming service,” said FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen, who said Comair's plan calls for 80 daily flights to start.

        If the strike had continued, all of the airline's pilots would have lost their ability to fly because they had not kept up with training for 90 days.

        Pilots began working in simulators as early as Sunday, and the company already has begun operating jet flights at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to retrain pilots.

        Ms. Glynn would not comment on specifics of the safety and retraining and would not discuss particular information in the Transportation Department filing.

        Ms. Bergen said all planes returning to commercial service will be test flown in a nonrevenue flight at least once in the coming week by flight crews who will begin working Monday.

        “And we will be conducting site surveillance and making sure all the procedures are followed,” Ms. Bergen said.

        In other news, Air Canada announced Tuesday it was beefing up its schedule between Cincinnati and its Toronto hub using its new regional subsidiary. The initial two flights were launched June 4, and the airline is adding another flight July 22 in response to what company officials said was “very encouraging” initial demand.

        Ms. Glynn noted one of the first destinations Comair will fly to Monday is Toronto, saying that Comair is going after cities “where our competition tried to take advantage of our situation.”

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