Northwest to lay off another 150 pilots

[LearX]

Northwest Airlines Corp. said on Monday that it expects to furlough 150 pilots from late 2003 to early 2004 and will cut back use of some older 747s because of reduced demand.

Northwest is still being hurt by a drop in demand related to the pneumonia-like virus SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, and the changes are intended to match capacity with passenger demand, a Northwest spokesman said.


The Air Line Pilots Association unit at Northwest said the furloughs were set as 50 per month in November, December and January and would raise the total number of pilots on furlough to 1,093. The air carrier has about 5,600 active pilots.


Northwest, the No. 4 U.S. air carrier, reported a loss of $396 million in the first quarter and has sought to cut labor costs by about $950 million per year to match competitors that have slashed costs in and outside of bankruptcy.


The Asia-Pacific region accounted for more than one-fifth of Eagan, Minnesota-based Northwest's traffic in April. The air carrier already has switched to smaller planes on some routes within Asia because of reduced demand.


The carrier plans to close 747-200 pilot bases in Honolulu and Minneapolis-St. Paul on Nov. 1. Northwest uses the Boeing Co. jets and some newer models on trans-Pacific and Asia routes. The 747-200 was designed for passengers, freight or both and has been out of production for more than a decade.


The base closings will affect about 425 of Northwest's most senior pilots directly, but will have a ripple impact as they displace less senior pilots, ALPA spokesman Will Holman said.


ALPA said a planned increase in the size of the 747-200 pilot base in Anchorage will not offset the closings fully. Anchorage is mainly a freight operation.


Northwest also plans to close a pilot base for DC-10s in Detroit in the second quarter of 2004 as it replaces them with Airbus A330 airliners on trans-Atlantic routes. It expects to open a DC-10 base in Honolulu in May 2004.

[B767300ER]

NWA could have as many as 1000 guys out. Not good. I see NW Airlink is growing, however. Wonder why?

[ADFS]

All I see is that this kinda stuffs been going on a long long time...when the crunch comes guys get laid off and the written agreements go up for sale...no one accomplished much more than a " Save Myself " attitude approach...ref eastern...that eventually repeats itself years and years later...
Obviously, the industry cannot tolerate a laim elephant and the gazelles run free, thats why regionals are growing.

[Ignition Override]

767300ER: One use of the "50-seat" CRJ is to order a big batch with only 44 seats, thereby sneaking around/under the scope clause. Some companies would take out twenty seats if they could somehow earn a profit.

It is also interesting to observe how an airline uses a 50 or 44-seat CRJ to compete with airlines which fly jets with about 100-145 seats. It might be just a strange coincidence that an airline tries to give numerous "mainline" routes to a regional partner just before that partner's stock is offered to the "street" in its first IPO........


If a plane only has 50 seats, then how can an airline offer more seats and potentially increase revenue, if these flights only operate three times per day? There must be a very popular marketing textbook from the 1950s which is still worshiped in the "permafrost" latitudes of the upper midwest.

As for airline furloughs, the more you have, then the more hostages exist on the bargaining table, especially when concessions are the hot topic. On second thought, as for the value of hostages, maybe not: many of your American "brothers" were born into the upper Hindu castes and can only look down upon those from TWA who were born into the "untouchable" caste in that hallowed, ancient system over there.:suspect:

[B767300ER]

"Sneaking around/under" is right, IO.

44-seat RJs are WRONG for certain markets, and I know business travelers prefer DC-9/737/717-size airplanes. More room, spread out, take your luggage on and no getting wet walking OUTside to the airplane!