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A Northwest Airlines flight from San Diego overshot the Minneapolis Airport by about 150 miles Wednesday evening, and federal investigators are looking into whether the pilots had become distracted, as they claimed, or perhaps fell asleep. Air traffic controllers lost radio communication with the Airbus A320, carrying 147 passengers and an unknown number of crew, when it was flying at 37,000 feet, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

There was no communication with the airplane for more than an hour as it approached the airport, the board said. An FAA spokesman said the agency was tracking the airplane on radar, so it knew the aircraft’s position during the period without radio contact.

The aircraft flew over its intended destination – Minneapolis-St. Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain Airport – and continued northeast for approximately 150 miles over the next 16 minutes. The airport’s controllers then re-established communication with crew members, who said they had become distracted, the safety board said. “The crew stated they were in a heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness,” the board said in a news release.

A board spokesman said the agency is examining all possible explanations for the mishap, including whether the pilots may have fallen asleep.

Delta Air Lines is supplying some aircraft from its Northwest subsidiary to offer free charters to evacuate elderly residents and people in assisted living facilities in Fargo, North Dakota, which is preparing to experience heavy flooding. CEO Richard Anderson told his employees in a recorded message Friday that Northwest Boeing 757s and DC9s will be used for the effort. Anderson didn’t say how many planes or flights were being offered, but said the airline was cooperating with the Fargo mayor. Flight crews are volunteering their time.

About 30 people were injured Friday when a Northwest Airlines flight suffered turbulence before landing at Japan’s Narita International Airport, a spokesman said. Three people where seriously injured. There were 408 passengers and 14 crew members on the Boeing 747-400 flight from Manila, Philippines.

Eight passengers were hurt and two were taken to local hospitals Thursday morning after a Northwest Airlines jet from Tokyo to Honolulu encountered severe turbulence over Midway Island. One flight attendant also was hurt and was taken to Queen’s Medical Center in serious but stable condition with head and neck injuries. The Airbus A330 landed in Honolulu without further trouble shortly after 8 a.m. local time. Flight 22 carried 285 passengers.

Delta and Northwest Airlines won antitrust approval on Wednesday, with the Justice Department saying the creation of what will be the world’s largest airline will help consumers without hurting competition. The approval means the only thing standing between the two airlines and the deal closing is a trial in San Francisco next week in a lawsuit brought by 28 travelers. Northwest CEO Doug Steenland has said he does not believe the lawsuit will stop the deal, which the carriers have said they hope to close by the end of this year.

The FAA yesterday approved the merger transition plan submitted by Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines that envisions the carriers moving to a single operating certificate within 15-18 months. “The plan outlines the methodology, processes, tools and timing to maintain the safety of the day-to-day operations and to achieve a single operating certificate,” the airlines said in a statement. DL Senior VP-Maintenance Operations John Laughter added that FAA’s acceptance of the plan is “a significant milestone in our efforts to bring together our two airlines.” The merged airline, to be called Delta, will operate a mainline fleet of nearly 800 aircraft and employ approximately 75,000 workers worldwide.

Northwest Airlines (NWA) today announced it will reduce its frontline and management employees by 2,500 as a result of capacity reductions taken to address the unprecedented run-up in oil prices. In addition, NWA will match its competitors and charge fees for the first checked bag and for frequent flier award tickets, and increase the fees for ticket changes.

“Our fuel costs have more than doubled in the past year,” said Doug Steenland, President and CEO of Northwest Airlines. “In order to manage through this unprecedented fuel challenge, we have to take action to both control costs and increase our revenue.”

In June, Northwest announced plans to reduce its system mainline capacity (domestic and international) in the fourth quarter of 2008 by 8.5% - 9.5% versus the fourth quarter of 2007. As a result of these flight reductions, Northwest will reduce its frontline and management personnel by 2,500. All NWA employee groups will be affected by this.

The reductions will be first achieved through a variety of voluntary programs including early-out programs, voluntary leaves, work rule modifications and attrition. Furloughs will be employed only if voluntary means fail to achieve the targeted reductions. “These reductions are the direct result of our extraordinary fuel costs and the necessary actions we must take to right-size our airline and eliminate unprofitable flying,” said Steenland.

NWA will also match other competitors by adding fees to offset some of its extraordinary fuel costs. Additionally, NWA is matching several competitors including American Airlines, United Airlines and US Airways, with plans to charge $15 for the customer’s first checked bag. The new policy applies to tickets sold on or after July 10, for travel starting August 28, throughout the United States as well as travel between the U.S. and Canada. NWA also charges $25 for a second checked bag and $100 for three or more checked bags. Frequent flier elites are exempt from the policy, along with full-fare coach passengers.

NWA is also matching competitors by implementing a service fee for award tickets. For WorldPerks® Award tickets issued in North America on or after September 15, 2008, NWA will charge $25 for domestic tickets, $50 for Trans-Atlantic tickets, and $100 for Trans-Pacific travel. Steenland noted, “This is a temporary service fee to partially offset our fuel costs. As fuel comes down, we will re-visit this decision.”

NWA also followed moves by American, United, Continental and US Airways to increase fees for ticket changes. Starting July 9, the fee for domestic non-refundable ticket changes will increase from $100 to $150. International ticket change fees will increase by an additional $50 to $150 per ticket, depending on class of service and other restrictions.

Steenland said, “In addition to helping offset our extraordinary fuel prices, these fee increases also better align our costs with providing these services.” He concluded, “We expect these three incremental revenue enhancing measures to generate $250 million to $300 million a year, which will help ease the burden of these record high oil prices.”

Photo: Four Northwest aircraft lined up in Amsterdam. (Photo Copyright Pamela de Boer)

Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis) has announced that it will be making further capacity cuts in the wake of skyrocketing fuel bills. The carrier has said it will reduce its main route capacity, including domestic and international flights, by up to 9.5% in the fourth quarter of 2008. No domestic station closures are being planned, but the reductions to the fleet will see a removal of 14 Boeing 757s and Airbus narrow body aircraft from the fleet. In addition, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 fleet will be reduced from 94 aircraft at the start of 2008 to 61 aircraft by the end of the year.

Photo: A Northwest DC-9 departs out of Toronto. (Photo Copyright Greg Gabbidon)

Representatives of Northwest Airlines’ (Minneapolis) pilots have asked the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) to deny an application to transfer the airline’s routes to Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) as part of a planned merger because it will “harm the public interest by creating a weaker merged airline than Northwest would be on its own". The two carriers announced their intention to merge in April and subsequently made an application to the DOT to transfer Northwest’s route authorities to Delta as part of the plan. As part of their application, the airlines said it would create annual sustainable synergies of $1 billion USD.

However, the Northwest Master Executive Council of pilots union ALPA says these synergies are unattainable since Northwest’s existing pilots agreement precludes putting the airline’s code on Delta’s flights. The council also argues that Delta will not be able to use Northwest aircraft, which it says are most suited to international routes, without their prior approval.

The union said in their submission to the DOT, “Failure to reach a new accord with Northwest’s pilots not only will impair the merger’s anticipated gains to the parties and to the public, but also will increase the merger’s recurring anticipated costs. Indeed, the higher costs and reduced synergies from failure to reach an accord with Northwest’s pilots may imperil the very viability of the new Delta/Northwest. The merger represents a bet that, by paying (we are told, the actual number may, as in most mergers, end up greater) a billion dollars in one-time integration costs, the combined entity will achieve sufficient recurring short-term synergies and savings to absorb this cost and sufficient recurring long-run benefits such that each airline is better off merged than each would be on its own. However, since the parties announced their merger agreement, some of the fundamental economic assumptions on which it was based no longer hold. Most significantly, since the merger was planned, the price of oil has shot up from $100 to over $130 a barrel. The bet of a long-run payoff from incurring greater short-term costs is accordingly less attractive today than when Delta and Northwest announced the merger.”

ATA Airlines (Indianapolis) claimed Wednesday that FedEx (Memphis) abruptly canceled a $400 million USD Pentagon charter, that ATA relied on to stay in business, to accommodate Northwest Airlines’ (Minneapolis) request for the military passenger business. ATA has filed a lawsuit against FedEx in the United States District Court in Indianapolis. Its deal with FedEx traces to a general Pentagon contract the cargo line has to haul troops and military freight. FedEx can hand segments of the contract to other carriers. For years, ATA ferried U.S. troops to bases worldwide under the arrangement, which became the financial mainstay for ATA after it emerged from bankruptcy in 2006.

In January, FedEx said it would cancel ATA’s participation in the deal. No reason was stated publicly. After revealing the deal had been canceled, ATA announced it would liquidate operations. In the lawsuit, ATA calls FedEx’s actions malicious and asks for unspecified punitive damages. ATA contends actual damages are $30 million and with special undisclosed consequences could exceed $150 million. FedEx officials could not be reached for comment.

A Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis) airplane was evacuated after it clipped wings with another company aircraft at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Sunday. Airport officials say the incident happened just before 4 p.m. An A330 airplane was taxiing to the gate and as it came in, its left wing clipped the right wing of another A330 aircraft at the next gate. The incident happened at gates G8 and G9. Passengers were deplaned from the aircraft that was taxiing to the gate. The other plane did not have any passengers. There were no injuries. Both planes sustained some damage to the wing tips and were taken to hangars to be repaired. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was contacted, and federal authorities will decide whether the FAA or the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate.

Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) and Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis), as well as Northwest’s subsidiaries, today filed application to the Department of Transportation (DOT) for transferring all route authorities held by Northwest and subsidiaries to the Delta name.

Docket: 2008-0162

In a major step forward towards a merger, Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) announced on Wednesday that its pilots had cleared merger plans with Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis). The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) had informed the carrier that their pilots had overwhelmingly voted to approve a change in their current contract that would promote revenue synergies in the new company. “We are pleased with the Delta pilots’ decision to ratify a modification to their current contract, marking an important step towards combining our two great airlines,” said Delta chief executive Richard Anderson. The future Delta and its regional partners would serve 390 destinations in 67 countries, have combined revenues of more than $35 billion USD, a fleet of nearly 800 aircraft (barring any cuts) and about 75,000 employees worldwide. Both parties expect the deal to be completed by the end of the year, after approval from regulators and shareholders.

A Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis) 757-200 with 193 passengers and crew declared an emergency after departing Los Angeles yesterday morning when a 3 foot by 2 foot panel ripped from the rear upper section of the right wing, hit the window at passenger row 28 and then damaged the right side of the horizontal stabilizer. Flight 332, enroute to Detroit, made an emergency landing at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. No one was reported injured during the event, and no emergency evacuation was made. The incident is currently under investigation.

Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) and Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis) reported their 1st Quarter 2008 financials today. Delta reported a first-quarter net loss Wednesday of 6.4 billion dollars as it marked down the company’s value in advance of its takeover of Northwest Airlines and saw fuel costs surge. Northwest reported a net loss of $4.1 billion. Both carriers included special charges and writedowns related to their market values. Excluding special items, Delta lost $274 million in the first quarter, and Northwest lost $191 million.

Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) has reached an agreement with Northwest Airlines to take over Northwest and create the world’s largest airline. The boards of both companies gave the deal the go-ahead Monday. Delta said the combined airline will have an enterprise value of $17.7 billion, will be based in Atlanta, and Delta CEO Richard Anderson will head the combined company. Under the terms of the transaction, Northwest shareholders will receive 1.25 Delta shares for each Northwest share they own. The deal will be subject to government antitrust approval.

Photo: Delta and Northwest tails are seen side-by-side at Phoenix (PHX) in 2004. Under a proposed takeover deal, both carriers would be rolled into the Delta brand. (Photo Copyright Yo Tanaka)

Sources close to negotiations have said that Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) and its pilots have agreed in principle on a contract that would clear the way for a merger with Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis). The tentative deal would raise pilots’ pay and give them an equity stake in the combined airline, which would keep Delta’s name and Atlanta headquarters. Some of the terms are still being negotiated. The merger plan includes a small premium for Northwest investors while Delta CEO Richard Anderson would run the combined carrier. Northwest CEO Doug Steenland would get a seat on the board. Sources say that a merger between the two carriers could be announced next week.

In an attempt to offset the high cost of fuel and an unstable economy, Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis) will park planes, increase certain charges for passengers, slow its spending, and look for ways to reduce employee numbers through attrition. The airline has announced several actions that it will be taking which include reducing planned domestic capacity by 5% starting in September and removing twelve (12) to fifteen (15) aircraft from service, mostly Douglas DC-9s and a mix of Boeing 757s, Airbus A320s and A319s. A spokesman for Northwest noted that the reduced schedule would result in the need for fewer employees, but promised that every effort would be made to achieve reductions through attrition. The airline has also suspended its plans to hire additional pilots and flight attendants. The company expects to achieve profit growth of $100 million USD annually through cost reductions, productivity improvements and revenue enhancements.

The Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) pilot union (ALPA) announced today that, while a joint pilot contract was approved, they have been unable to reach agreement with Northwest Airlines’ (Minneapolis) pilots on a seniority list integration. Such a deal was to pave the way for a merger between the two airlines, but now could potentially kill off any such merger. In a letter to Delta executives, the head of the pilots union said that they haven’t been able to negotiate a benefits and seniority agreement that would satisfy both sides.

Pilots representing Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) and Northwest Airlines (Minneapolis) met Tuesday for the first time in nearly two weeks to discuss issues that had been holding up a possible merger between the two airlines. When the pilot organizations had broken off talks it had been feared by many that the merger would die along with it. Issues regarding seniority have been the major hold up so far sources say. Unlike in past mergers, Delta and Northwest executives want the pilots to resolve their seniority issues before a merger agreement is announced.

Neither Delta nor Northwest officials have publicly acknowledged merger negotiations with each other, but inside sources have said that many elements of a deal have been worked out, including retaining the Delta name, its headquarters in Atlanta, and CEO Richard H. Anderson to run the company.