Northwest Airlines DC-10 in the old livery
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Northwest Airlines is an airline headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota, with three major hubs in the United States: Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and Memphis International Airport. Northwest also operates flights from a hub in Asia from Narita International Airport near Tokyo, as well as flights to India from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. It is currently the world's fourth largest airline in terms of RPK (revenue-passenger-kilometers).
Northwest Airlines' regional flights are operated under the name Northwest Airlink. In September 2004, Northwest joined the SkyTeam Alliance along with its long-time partners, KLM and Continental Airlines. (Northwest was formerly part of the Wings Alliance). Northwest Airlines uses the IATA designator code NW and the ICAO code NWA. Its frequent flyer program is called WorldPerks .
History
Northwest Airlines was founded in 1926 by Col. Lewis Brittin, under the name Northwest Airways. Like other early airlines, Northwest's focus was not in hauling passengers, but in flying mail for the U.S. Postal Service. The fledgling airline established a mail route between Minneapolis and Chicago, using open cockpit biplanes such as the Curtiss Oriole.
Northwest did not begin flying passengers until 1927. In 1928, the airline started its first international route with service to Winnipeg, Canada. The airline's operations were expanded to smaller cities in the region by the end of the decade. In 1933, Northwest was designated to fly the Northern Transcontinental Route from New York City to Seattle, Washington: it adopted the name Northwest Airlines the following year. Northwest stock began to be publicly traded in 1941.
During World War II, Northwest flew military equipment and personnel from the continental United States to Alaska. This experience led the government to designate Northwest as the United States' main North Pacific carrier following the war. In 1947, Northwest became the first U.S. airline to fly to Japan, using Boeing 377 Stratocruisers from Seattle (direct) and Chicago (via Anchorage). From Tokyo, Northwest flights continued to Shanghai, Manila, and Hong Kong. (Taipei replaced Shanghai after the revolution of 1949.) With its new routes, the airline rebranded itself as Northwest Orient Airlines. In 1951, Northwest helped establish Japan Airlines by leasing its aircraft and crew to the new company. Northwest is the largest international non-Japanese carrier at Tokyo's Narita airport.
After airline deregulation, Northwest began direct flights to other Asian cities, and gradually strengthened its presence in the southern United States. It also began flying to Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia. In 1985, Northwest purchased Republic Airlines and adopted its three-hub network centered around Minneapolis, Detroit, and Memphis. Northwest returned to its original name with the merger.
Northwest was purchased in a 1989 leveraged buyout by an investment group headed by Al Checchi and Gary Wilson, KLM, and many others. In 1993, Northwest entered its cooperative agreement with KLM, which was the largest airline partnership ever conceived at the time. Northwest gradually pulled out of its minor European destinations and focused its attention on the domestic and Asian markets once more.
Currently, Northwest has extensive Pacific operations out of Tokyo. They fly from Tokyo to 15 cities in Asia including Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore. In October, they began to fly from Detroit to Guangzhou via Tokyo.
Three Northwest aircraft were targeted in the failed Operation Bojinka terrorist plot of 1995. Also related to terrorism, just before the September 11, 2001 attacks, Zacarias Moussaoui (who was later labeled as a possible "20th hijacker" by the news media) was arrested after attempting to use a flight simulator operated by Northwest.
In the early 2000s, Northwest Airlines acquired a reputation of refusing to adopt industry-wide rate increases that had been accepted by other United States airlines. This changed in March 2005, when Northwest adupted rate hikes in response to rising oil prices.
Fleet
Northwest currently has one of the oldest fleets of all major air carriers, with an average airframe age of 18.3 years across the fleet. This is due to its large fleet of DC-9s dating from the 1970s and 80s. Excluding its DC-9 fleet, its average fleet age is 9.9 years [1]. Though the airframes may be aging, the interiors of its DC-9 fleet aren't terribly old; Northwest refurbished them in the mid-1990s. Northwest's relative financial stability compared to other North American carriers has been attributed to its retention of its older planes [2]. Even so, Northwest's DC-9s are being retired at a rate of about 10 a year as they reach their maximum flight ratings [3]. Exactly how the airline will replace them in the long run is still an open question, but at present Northwest seems to be moving towards a solution using CRJs operated by its Northwest Airlink subsidiaries [4].
Northwest introduced the Boeing 747-400 in 1989.
Current totals
The airline's fleet (not counting Northwest Airlink) as of March 2005 includes:
Northwest also operates twelve Boeing 747-200F freighters.
Northwest's A330s and 747-451s have the first flat reclining seats in business class on any American airline. The A330s also have televisions on the back of every coach seat.
Destinations
See article: Northwest Airlines destinations
References
- "Pilots Who Flew Drunk are Sentenced to Prison". (October 27, 1990). St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. 7A. Retrieved March 21, 2005 from LexisNexis.
- Moylan, Martin J. "NWA to trim mechanics jobs". (March 17, 2005). Detroit Free Press. http://www.freep.com/money/business/nwa17e_20050317.htm
- "Using Old DC-9s Pays Off for Northwest". (February 20, 2005). Associated Press.[5]
- http://www.nwa.com/corpinfo/upclose/
External links
Last updated: 05-07-2005 06:08:33
Last updated: 05-13-2005 07:56:04
