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A Seething Summer of Discontent for Northwest Airlines

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 1, 2007

The nation’s sixth-largest airline left bankruptcy behind on May 31 but not its problems.

The combination of too many flights and not enough pilots produced a predictable predicament: hundreds of end-of-the-month cancellations in June and July with more likely for August and September.

Although the carrier has cut its schedule by 4 per cent, it won’t hire new pilots until all furloughed pilots have returned to work – a process that could take months because they need to be retrained.

According to their contract, Northwest pilots must work 90 hours per months but can volunteer another 10 years, bringing them up to the Federal Aviation Administration’s mandated limit of 100 hours in any given month.

The Northwest Air Line Pilots Association says its members are putting in those volunteer hours but blames management for failing to have enough pilots to meet the carrier’s schedule.

Thunderstorms – the biggest problem in airline delays, diversions, and cancellations – took the blame from Northwest management in June but staffing shortages seemed to more of a factor during the last weekend of July, when more than 12 per cent of Northwest flights were scrubbed.

At least management is not denying that a problem exists.

According to chief executive officer Douglas Streenland, "Operational performance in June and July has been unacceptable."

He says fewer flights, better scheduling, and more pilots will prevent a repeat performance. The CEO also promises to repair pilot protests regarding heavy workloads and long road trips.

The bad publicity caused by massive cancellations during the peak summer travel season hurts the Minneapolis-based carrier, which somehow managed a $2.2 billion profit for the second quarter of the year. Much of that profit, up 52.5 per cent from the same period of 2006, was based upon accounting gains following the end of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

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