Northwest Cancels Hundreds of Flights
Posted on: Monday, 25 June 2007, 21:11 CDT
Northwest Airlines canceled hundreds of flights last weekend, which the U.S. airline said was weather-related but a union blamed on crew shortages.
According to FlightStats.com, Northwest called off 453 flights Friday through Sunday, TheStreet.com reported Monday. At least 125 more flights were removed from the schedule by midday Monday.
Northwest, with headquarters in Minnesota, operates about 1,400 daily departures.
This staffing problem is something we have pointed out for a long time, said Wade Blaufuss, spokesman for the Northwest chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association. A lean operation, he said, looks great on paper, but intangibles like fatigue and morale and stress don't show up on a balance sheet.
Northwest said in a statement that recent severe weather caused it to experience crew shortages, which have resulted in some flight cancellations.
Federal regulations limit pilots to flying 1,000 hours a year and 100 hours a month. Normally, airlines fly heavier schedules in the summer and rely at times on pilots volunteering to enable them to operate a full schedule.
It looks like Northwest got the short straw, said Meara McLaughlin, spokeswoman for FlightStats, which compiles flight statistics for travel businesses.
Source: United Press International
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