Northwest Airlines
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| Founded | 1926 (as Northwest Airways) | ||||||
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| Hubs | Minneapolis-Saint Paul Int'l Airport Detroit Metro. Wayne Cty. Airport Memphis International Airport Schiphol International Airport Narita International Airport | ||||||
| Focus cities | Indianapolis International Airport General Mitchell Int'l Airport | ||||||
| Frequent-flyer program | WorldPerks | ||||||
| Alliance | SkyTeam | ||||||
| Fleet size | 445 | ||||||
| Destinations | 233 | ||||||
| Headquarters | Eagan, Minnesota | ||||||
| Key people | Douglas Steenland (CEO), Neal Cohen (CFO) | ||||||
| Website | www.nwa.com | ||||||
Northwest Airlines (IATA: NW, ICAO: NWA, call sign: Northwest) Nasdaq: NWAC 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, and also operates transatlantic and Asian flights in cooperation with partner KLM from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
Northwest is currently the world's fourth largest airline in terms of RPK (revenue-passenger-kilometers). In addition to operating one of the largest domestic route networks in the U.S., Northwest carries more passengers across the Pacific (5.1 million in 2004) than any other U.S. carrier, and carries more air cargo than any other passenger airline. Northwest is the U.S. carrier with the longest continuous name identification.
Northwest Airlines' regional flights are operated under the name Northwest Airlink by Mesaba Airlines and Pinnacle Airlines . 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). 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. Post Office Department.[[1] The fledgling airline established a mail route between Minneapolis, Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois, 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 1931 Northwest sponsored Charles and Anne Lindbergh on a pioneering flight to Japan, scouting what would become known as the Northwest Airlines Great Circle route, and proving that flying through Alaska could save as much as 2,000 miles on a New York-Tokyo route. 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. During this time, Northwest began painting their aircraft tails red, as a visual aid in poor visual conditons. This experience with the severe northern climate led the government to designate Northwest as the United States' main North Pacific carrier following the war.
On 15 July 1947, Northwest became the first airline to fly a commercial passenger flight from the U.S. to Japan, using The Manila, a Douglas DC-4 aircraft, by way of Anchorage. From Tokyo, the flight continued to Seoul, Shanghai, and Manila. Taipei replaced Shanghai after the revolution of 1949. With its new routes, the airline rebranded itself as Northwest Orient Airlines, although the legal name of the company remained Northwest Airlines.
On 1 August 1949, Northwest took delivery of its first double-deck Boeing 377 Stratocruisers, which allowed the airline to establish higher service standards and reduce flight time. They were used to fly the Tokyo route nonstop from Seattle, and from Chicago, via Anchorage. In 1951, Northwest helped establish Japan Airlines by leasing its aircraft and crew to the new company. In 1952, under the U.S.-Japan bilateral aviation treaty, Northwest and Pan American were the two U.S. flag carriers awarded rights to fly not only from the U.S. to Japan, but to pick up and carry passengers beyond Japan. Northwest remains the largest non-Japanese carrier at Tokyo's Narita Airport, with flights to 15 cities in Asia including Seoul, Manila, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Bangkok and Singapore.
Northwest meteorologists pioneered the first clear-air turbulence forecasting system in 1957, important since the airline flew many northern routes over turbulence-prone mountain areas. Northwest remains a leader in turbulence prediction, providing TPAWS (turbulence prediciton and warning services) to other airlines. [2]
On 1 June 1959, Northwest took delivery of its first turboprop jet aircraft, the Lockheed L-188 Electra. On 8 July 1960, Northwest put the Douglas DC-8 into service, offering the shortest flight times on routes to Asia. In August 1960, Northwest retired the last Boeing 377 Stratocurisers. The airline took delivery of the Boeing 720B in 1961, and in 1963, with the new Boeing 707, and the retirement of the last propeller aircraft, Northwest became the first U.S. airline with an all-turbofan jet fleet. Northwest began operating the Boeing 727-151 in 1964.
Northwest took delivery of its first Boeing 747-151 aircraft in 1970. The airline began retiring the older Boeing 707s, and using the newer 707s on high-density domestic routes, where the 727 lacked sufficient capacity.
After airline deregulation, Northwest began nonstop flights to other Asian cities, returned to China in 1984 after a 34 year hiatus, and gradually strengthened its presence in the southern United States. It also began flying to Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia. On 1 October 1986, Northwest purchased its competitor, Minneapolis-St. Paul-based Republic Airlines and adopted its three-hub network centered around Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Memphis. Northwest dropped the word Orient from its brand name after the merger. The legal name has been Northwest Airlines since 1934.
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. On 1 May 1996 Northwest began the first nonstop service from the U.S. to China, on the Detroit-Beijing route. Nonstop Detroit-Shanghai service followed in April 2000.
Northwest was the first large U.S. airline to offer passengers internet check-in, in December 2000. The airline had offered airport self-service check-in since 1997. In the early 2000's, Northwest Airlines acquired a reputation of refusing to adopt industry-wide fare increases that had been accepted by other United States airlines. This changed in March 2005, when Northwest adopted fare hikes in response to rising oil prices.
Incidents and Accidents
- On 12 March 1948, Northwest Airlines Flight 4422, a DC-4 military charter enroute from Shanghai back to the U.S.][3] crashed into Mount Sanford, Alaska.
- The disappearance of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 [4], a DC-4 flying from New York City to Minneapolis-St. Paul on 23 June 1950, over Lake Michigan, has never been solved.
- On 16 August 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 255 [5]crashed on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. All aboard the MD-82 were killed except for one young girl.
- Three Northwest aircraft were targeted in the failed Operation Bojinka terrorist plot of 1995. Also related to terrorism, just before the 11 September 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 owned by Northwest Aerospace Training Corporation (NATCO), which is afflilated with Northwest.
- In 1990, three crew members were intoxicated when they flew their Boeing 727 airliner from Fargo, North Dakota to MSP airport in the Twin Cities. Another incident occurred in January 2001 when a pilot flew a DC-9 from San Antonio, Texas to MSP. Upon landing, he had a 0.056% blood alcohol content level, above the Federal Aviation Administration limit. He was soon fired. British Airways, America West, Delta, and many other airlines have had to deal with this issue.
- In 2004, pilots mistakenly landed at Ellsworth AFB instead of the nearby Rapid City airport. Passengers aboard were asked to close their window shades by the US Air Force.
- In 2005 a Northwest DC-10 enroute from Mumbai (Bombay) to Amsterdam diverted to Mehrabad Airport in Tehran Iran. A warning light (later proven to be a false alarm) indicated there was a possible fire in the cargo hold. Several hours were spent negotiating the purchase of fuel, due to the lack of predecent; this was the first US airliner to land in Iran since the 1979 revolution.
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 Douglas DC-9s dating from the 1970s and -80s, which were acquired via the Republic Airlines merger in 1986. All of the airlines which preceeded Republic, North Central Airlines, Southern Airways, and Hughes Airwest were all large DC-9 operators. Both Northwest and Republic operated Boeing 727 aircraft; these were mostly retired by the late 1990s in favor of Airbus 319 and Airbus 320 aircraft. Northwest was the U.S. launch customer for the Airbus 320 with N301US, an A320-211 manufactured on 6 June 1989. The remaining B727 aircraft were retired during the industry downtown following 11 September 2001; the last B727 flight was in January 2003.
Excluding its DC-9 fleet, its average fleet age is 9.9 years [6]. Though the airframes may be aging, the interiors of its DC-9 fleet aren't terribly old; in the mid-1990s, Northwest rebuilt the aircraft interiors from the floor up with all-new materials. Northwest's DC-9s are being retired at a rate of about 10 a year as they reach their maximum flight ratings [7]. 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 [8].
In April 2003, Northwest introduced a simplified new paint scheme and logo. The first Airbus 330-323, used on Europe flights, arrived on 6 August 2003. For many years, Northwest operated one of the world's largest B747 fleets, and flew all-B747 fleet to/from and within Asia from the 1970s through the early 2000s. As the older B747s were retired, Northwest switched temporarily to DC-10-30 aircraft on some shorter-distance trans-Pacific routes, until the Airbus A330-223 aircraft replaced them in the fall of 2004. Northwest was the launch customer for the Boeing 747-400 in 1989, and plans to be the first U.S.-based Boeing 787 operator in 2008.
All of Northwest's aircraft have a two-class configuration: coach and first class on domestic routes; coach and World Business Class on international routes. Northwest's A330s and 747-451s have the first lie-flat business class seats of any U.S. airline. Northwest's World Business Class is comprable to other airlines' First Class products. Airbus A330 aircraft have a personal video monitor for every seat, and AC power outlets for most seats.
 | This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. |
| Type | Total | Passengers (First*/Coach) |
Routes |
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| Boeing 747-451 | 16 | 403 (65/338) | New York-Tokyo-Hong Kong, Detroit-Tokyo-Shanghai, Minneapolis-Tokyo-Manila, Detroit-Nagoya-Manila, Detroit-Osaka-Taipei, Honolulu-Tokyo |
| Boeing 747-251 | 6 | 353 (67/286) US-Japan 430 (30/400) Pacific islands |
Los Angeles-Tokyo, Honolulu-Tokyo, Guam-Tokyo |
| Airbus A330-323 | 8 | 298 (34/264) | Detroit-Frankfurt, Detroit-Paris, Detroit-Amsterdam, Boston-Amsterdam |
| Airbus A330-223 | 7 | 243 (32/211) | Seattle-Tokyo-Seoul, Tokyo-Beijing, Portland-Tokyo-Singapore, San Francisco-Tokyo-Bangkok |
| McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 | 22 | 273 (26/247) | Minneapolis-Amsterdam-Mumbai, Detroit-London, Honolulu-Osaka, Seattle-Amsterdam, Minneapolis-Honolulu, Minneapolis-London |
| Boeing 757-351 | 16 | 224 (24/200) | domestic routes, west coast to Hawaii replacing the DC-10 |
| Boeing 757-251 | 56 | 180 (22/158) or 184 (22/162) US 182 (20/162) int'l |
Saipan-Nagoya-Tokyo, Tokyo-Busan, Tokyo-Guangzhou; domestic routes |
| Airbus A320-211 & -212 | 78 | 148 (16/132) | domestic routes |
| Airbus A319-114 | 70 | 124 (16/108) | domestic routes |
| Douglas DC-9-51 | 35 | 125 (16/109) | domestic routes |
| Douglas DC-9-41 | 12 | 110 (16/94) | domestic routes |
| Douglas DC-9-31 & -32 | 103 | 100 (16/84) | domestic routes |
| Boeing 787-851 | 18 orders, 50 options |
221 (36/185) | Entry into service: 2008 first route to be New York - Tokyo |
Northwest also operates thirteen Boeing 747-251SF freighters.
- Note in table with the asterisk (*): World Business Class on international flights; First Class is on domestic flights only.
Destinations
See article: Northwest Airlines destinations
Frequent flyer program
WorldPerks is Northwest Airlines' frequent flyer program, offering regular travelers the ability to obtain free tickets, First Class upgrades on flights, discounted membership for its airport lounges (WorldClubs), or other types of rewards. Customer accumulate miles from actual flight segments they fly or through Northwest's partners, such as car rental companies, hotels, credit cards, and other vendors.
In addition to its Northwest Airlink and Skyteam Alliance partnerships, Northwest offers code sharing and frequent flyer partnerships with other airlines, including the following:
References
- Ruble, Kenneth D.; (1986). Flight to the Top: How a Hometown Airline Made History--and Keeps on Making It: The Absorbing Sixty-year Story of Northwest Airlines. New York: Viking Press.
- "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.
- Northwest Airlines history timeline on www.nwa.com
- U.S. Postal Service history; airmail service starts
External links
- Northwest Airlines
- Northwest Airlines fleet detail
- Guide to earning miles on Northwest Airlines
- Article on Northwest's 2003 rebranding as NWA, initials it shares with a well-known gangsta rap group
- ASN worldwide aircraft incident database
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