Archive for the 'Northwest Airlines' Category
September 06 2007
You may (or may not) remember that Northwest announced nonstop flights from LaGuardia to Dallas as a way of getting back at American for launching nonstop flights from LaGuardia to Minneapolis. Well, they’ve come to their senses and have decided not to launch that flight, instead using the slots to fly nonstop to unserved markets such as Des Moines and Flint. Good to see a little sanity in the operation.
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August 16 2007
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the crash of Northwest flight 255 outside of Detroit, an accident that killed all but 1 of the 155 people on board the flight to Phoenix. You may remember that, miraculously, a 4 year old girl named Cecelia Cichan was the sole survivor of the flight. The link to the story above offers a bit of a history of her remarkable life since that day.
She was adopted by an aunt and uncle who made it their mission to provide a normal childhood for their niece, who lost her parents and brother in the crash. They changed her last name, moved her from her Arizona hometown, and had court records sealed so media could not track her. Now, at 24, she has graduated from college and gotten married. By all accounts she has held up extremely well, though until recently she did not interact with the surviving families from the crash.
I lived outside of Detroit for 7 years, and this crash was burned into the collective memory of the city; certainly every time I drove by the crash site near the airport I thought of how unthinkable it was that 1 little girl could’ve survived when 154 others did not. It’s such a testament to her relatives that she was able to thrive, anonymously, for the past 20 years, despite the horror she saw when she was a child.
Check out the column in the link - I was pretty moved by it.
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August 03 2007
Northwest’s summer of discontent may be over: The carrier announced that it has reached an agreement with pilots that should keep all (most?) of their scheduled flights in their come the end of the month (this would be a stark difference from the past 2 months, when the end of the month has led to a bunch of canceled flights). Another way to put it: Northwest was selling seats on flights it knew it wouldn’t be flying. Nice. I think this goes to the heart of why people tend to hate airlines: if we cancel, we’re charged $100, if the airline cancels, well, um, nothing happens. You’re outta luck. Go fly someone else (unless you live in Detroit or Minneapolis, where you don’t have much of an option).
In any case. The deal covers a bunch of pilot rules that aren’t important here, but just know that if you’re a pilot and you show up for work every day between now and September 3rd, you’ll get a bonus of 15% of eligible earnings. Yes, you did read that correctly. A bonus for showing up to work for a month.
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July 30 2007
Northwest canceled 500 flights over the weekend, due either to pilots acting improperly (according to management) or pilots not being scheduled correctly (according to the pilot’s union). For several months now, pilots have hit their 90 hour flight limit (please do not write saying that this is a small number of hours to work for the month. Flying hours only count the actual number of hours in the air plus taxiing) early in the month, leaving a shortage of pilots. Northwest won’t hire more, which is upsetting the union.
In any case, while it’s a small number of the total flights, if you have a Northwest flight booked late in the month you should call the airline the day before to make sure it’s actually flying.
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June 29 2007
In what is shaping up to be the worst flying summer in history, Northwest has canceled about 1,000 flights this week due to a number of factors, not least of which is some sort of labor action by pilots who are upset with management. Bad weather hasn’t helped either, as a bunch of airlines have canceled flights in the Northeast, but Northwest has really topped them all. The Detroit Free Press has a little Q&A about what to do if you’re flying Northwest (short version: you’re screwed).
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May 31 2007
The era of bankrupt US airlines is basically over today (well, for now), as Northwest Airlines exits Chapter 11. If you’re a fan of airline stocks (you are crazy) you’ll be excited to know that Northwest’s shares will be listed today on the NYSE. Passengers won’t notice anything different.
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March 06 2007
An off-duty Northwest Airlines employee was accused of sexual assault after a woman said that he sat next to her on an overnight flight, lifted up her shirt and touched himself. And not in a good way. The employee was taken into FBI custody after the flight landed, and he’s been suspended from his job.
FOLLOW UP: Apparently the employee not only touched himself, he, uh, finished himself off on the woman he was sitting next to. When Northwest reports higher load factors next month, this is NOT what they’re talking about (allow me to apologize for that in advance)…
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January 11 2007
The WSJ is reporting that Delta has been in talks with Northwest Airlines about a potential merger. Odd that Delta had been swearing that they wanted to remain independent while at the same time talking to Northwest. I’d be interested if anyone can explain why they’d be interested in Northwest (still in bankruptcy) and not in US Airways (profitable). Thoughts?
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December 07 2006
For geeky (in a good way) airplane people, there’s some good news: Seven of Northwest’s ancient DC-10s, which many (?) thought were headed for the Arizona desert, will be sold to ATA, which must’ve bought the old birds for next to nothing. Good for them.
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October 31 2006
We’re nearing the end of a (very long) era at Northwest Airlines, as the carrier announced that it flew its last ancient DC-10 to Europe on Sunday, replacing the aging widebody with new A330s. Northwest will continue to use DC-10s on its Minneapolis to Honolulu route through January (yes, the movie is projected on a screen at the front of the cabin. Just like in 1974.) Someone out there can correct me, but I believe they are the last US airline to fly DC-10s, and, until now, flew the oldest fleet in the US. The A330s, though, are quite nice, with (angled) lie-flat seats and video on demand.
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Northwest: Forget about Those LaGuardia-Dallas Flights