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Northwest Airlines Cuts Detroit Flights but Adds Gates, Eateries

Posted on: Monday, 7 November 2005, 21:00 CST

By Detroit Free Press

Nov. 8--Even as Northwest Airlines cuts flights at Detroit Metro Airport, passengers will have new gates and more restaurants to choose from.

With little fanfare, Northwest Airlines Inc. opened 19 of 41 new gates at the McNamara Terminal on Sunday as part of its plan to rebuild its basic, low-slung commuter concourse there.

The new concourse will replace Concourse C's 25 gates and add 16 Northwest gates to the airport.

The new building and expansion come at a critical point for Northwest as the Eagan, Minn.- based airline shrinks to become a smaller, and hopefully stronger carrier through Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Northwest's efforts to contract have already thrust the futures of the very companies the concourse was built for -- its feeder airlines Mesaba and Pinnacle -- into uncertainty.

As the futures of Northwest and its commuters continue to shake out, passengers said they enjoyed traveling through the new Concourse C with its high ceilings and natural light that makes it feel more like the McNamara Terminal's main Concourse A.

"It's been one of the nicest ones I've been in. It seemed like it was open. Everything was easy to get to, " said Tony Rice, 45, of Huntsville Ala., who was traveling for business Monday.

Before the new gates opened, passengers sat in a large holding room and waited for their flights to be called. When that happened, they walked through a long, low-ceilinged, narrow hallway to their gate and then walked on a low-slung jet-bridge or climbed a flight of stairs to their plane.

The original Concourse C opened as part of the $1.2- billion McNamara Terminal in 2002. Northwest is using three of those original gates, giving Concourse C's current configuration of 22 gates.

Concourse C is part of a $190- million project that also expanded Concourse B from eight to 17 gates. The construction has been paid for by bond money that will be paid back with a $4.50 fee added to tickets.

The airline, which carries more than 60 percent of passengers at Detroit Metro, expects to open another six gates later this year, four more in the spring and the last nine next summer.

Despite its expanding real estate at Detroit Metro, Northwest is shrinking. Last week it cut 27 flights at the airport, and now operates 524 a day there. The changes are part of its plan to reorganize in bankruptcy.

It filed for bankruptcy Sept. 14, citing high legacy costs amid soaring fuel bills and competition from low-cost carriers that keeps it from raising fares. Northwest's bankruptcy has already forced Mesaba Airlines to file its own Chapter 11 case. Mesaba filed for bankruptcy Oct. 13, saying it couldn't survive without $30 million in payments from Northwest and bankruptcy protection to deal with Northwest's mandates to slash its own fleet by at least 28 percent.

Northwest has eliminated nine of the planes it leases to the commuter carrier Monday. It could cut another 26 by mid-December and another 10 by January. Mesaba's fleet consists of 100 planes. Northwest, along with the rest of the industry, has ramped up its use of regional jets with less than 70 seats. That's a main reason for its plan to expand Concourse C. But Northwest has put on hold plans to add 13 more regional jets to Mesaba's fleet, which so far includes two.

Northwest has also removed 15 planes out of Pinnacle's fleet of 139 regional jets.

Together the Mesaba and Pinnacle carriers operate 230 flights a day out of Metro.

Northwest's schedule and fleet mix are still under review, company spokeswoman Jennifer Bagdade said.

Northwest plans to open its own low- cost subsidiary. Dubbed for now as Newco, the carrier would be a feeder carrier and operate flights with 70 to 100 seats, to cut labor costs by moving those flights out of the airline's seniority scales for pilots and flight attendants.

In the near-term, the new concourse adds more shops and restaurants to the McNamara Terminal. Some opened on Sunday.

Busiest was Detroit 500, a race car-themed smoking bar.

"We were out there at 5 a.m. and we already had a lot of people in there, because it is the only place you can smoke anywhere on the B-C concourses," said Nick Biello, president of Delaware North Hospitality.

Passengers on C Concourse also can dine at Fuddruckers hamburger restaurant, the Martini Lounge and the Coffee Beanery. Stores that opened on C Sunday include CNN Detroit Newslink, a newsroom-themed news shop; and Everything ASAP, a store filled with last-minute travel items.

Delaware is a Buffalo, N.Y.-based company whose CA One Services division operates the Concourse C concessions and several others in the airport.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Detroit Free Press

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NWACQ, MAIR, PNCL, TWX,

Source: Detroit Free Press

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