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Northwest Passengers Face Uncertain Summer

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

July 13, 2007

Both passengers and pilots are peeved that the carrier has cut its flight schedule in the middle of the busy summer travel season.

Blaming bad weather, problems with air traffic controllers, and pilot absenteeism, the airline cancelled nearly 12 per cent of its flights during the last week in June. It also announced plans to eliminate one of its Detroit-to-Frankfurt flights on July 18 and three per cent of all August flights.

Although Northwest employees were hit with pay cuts after the airline ended its 20-month tenure in bankruptcy, the Air Line Pilots Association said disgruntled pilots were not staging a job action against the No. 5 carrier.

On the other hand, the group suggests the airline might not have enough pilots to meet its schedule. Northwest pilots are restricted to 90 hours per month, 10 below the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) limit, though they can add voluntary overtime.

As the end of each month approaches, so do the mandatory limits on their time.

Northwest says pilot absenteeism was 80 per cent higher last month than it was during the previous June but union officials insist the reason is fatigue rather than a job action.

Critics also contend that across-the-board cuts in capacity increase demand – the perfect formula for a fare hike.

It is also the perfect formula for passengers to be stranded, since rebooking is difficult when seats are so limited. Weather-related delays and cancellations, commonly caused by summer thunderstorms, can wreak havoc with any airline’s route system but will hit hardest when capacity is diminished.

In the meantime, pilot staffing and work limits remain issues that may dog Northwest well beyond the traditional end of the peak summer travel season.

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