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Northwest Flight Cancellations Up

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 August 2005, 06:00 CDT

Northwest Airlines flew through the fourth day of a nationwide mechanics' union strike Tuesday as passengers grappled with an unusual number of flight cancellations.

Northwest said Tuesday that about 3% of its nearly 1,500 flights on Monday were canceled. It would not release figures on the number of flights delayed, and independent numbers weren't immediately available. On a normal day without a strike or bad weather, an airline typically cancels only about 1% or 2% of its flights. Northwest canceled only about 1% of its flights in June.

But the airline's operations now, using mechanics Northwest has brought in to replace strikers, might be smoother than in the days leading up to the strike. The airline said it canceled 9% of its flights Friday, the day before the strike began. Northwest blamed a union "slowdown" leading up to the strike deadline.

Northwest issued a statement Tuesday saying it's "making progress" reducing "slowdown-related" maintenance problems.

More than 4,400 members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association walked off their jobs early Saturday when a deadline expired without the airline and union reaching a contract agreement. Struggling Northwest wanted to cut $176 million a year in maintenance costs from its union by laying off more than half the union members and reducing the paychecks of those remaining. The union balked.

Northwest is able to keep flying because unions representing pilots and flight attendants did not strike.

While picketing by mechanics continued at Northwest airports Tuesday, passengers had to sort through union and airline rhetoric, unpredictable flight problems and tension among Northwest workers.

The Federal Aviation Administration denied a union report that two flights in Minneapolis had been grounded for safety violations. FAA spokesman Greg Martin said the agency, which has doubled its usual number of safety inspectors at Northwest facilities, has grounded no planes.

Passengers' experiences, meanwhile, are all over the map. Frequent Northwest fliers e-mailed by USA TODAY Tuesday reported everything from extraordinary flight delays and missed connections to flights arriving before they were due. Detroit-based media consultant Fred Jacobs said both his Northwest flights this week were late, and friction between replacement mechanics and unionized flight attendants was palpable.

"There's no eye contact between them," Jacobs said.

Minneapolis-based executive Bob Azman said Northwest already has canceled his Boston to Minneapolis flight next week, so he's having to fly a different carrier. But his Minneapolis to Atlanta flight Tuesday arrived 15 minutes early.

"It was business as usual from my perspective," he said.

Source: USA TODAY

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