An Oxymoron For The Fifth Largest US Carrier?

It wasn't easy being Northwest this past week, when crew shortages forced cancellation of 12 percent of its schedule, as ANN reported.

And although operations were back to normal this weekend, Northwest plans to cut flights and perhaps hire more pilots to prevent future pilot shortages, reported Bloomberg Friday.

Northwest "will initiate new pilot hiring, if necessary" after recalling the rest of the pilots still on furlough.

The airline will drop a daily flight to Germany beginning July 18, while trimming domestic flying by 3 percent in August, accounting for 90 hours a day in August, representing about 40 flights, based on the carrier's average daily schedule according to Bloomberg, to increase the reserve of pilot hours.

The pilots' union contract limits them to 90 hours of flying a month; federal law permits only 10 hours of overtime beyond that. Storms and other delays eat into that time.

There was "no official or unofficial" action by pilots to call in sick, and many flight crews simply used up their allowed hours, Captain Monty Montgomery, spokesman for Northwest's chapter of the ALPA, said last week.

Northwest said other changes include a shift in how pilots' trips are scheduled, "especially to and from large East Coast cities."

According to Northwest, "This will minimize the impact to the airline's flying schedule when bad weather" and air-traffic-control delays occur. Storms in one city often have a domino effect around the country if crews are stranded out of position for their next flights.

Northwest will cancel the second daily flight between Detroit and Frankfurt in July to free those pilots for other routes; the flight was a seasonal addition that began May 7 and was due to end October 27, spokesman Roman Blahoski said.

The airline cancelled 31 flights Friday, 2 percent of its schedule, according to FlightStats, the lowest rate this week.
 
"I'm still concerned that this won't solve the problem," Montgomery said of the airline's changes.

The union says Northwest lacks enough pilots after its bankruptcy reorganization, from which it emerged May 31. The union said talks began with management on June 27 to address the staffing shortage.

According to Montgomery, Northwest needs about 500 extra pilots to handle normal operations beyond the 4,851 who are now flying. The carrier has 396 pilots on furlough after calling 326 back to work last year, according to union figures.

FMI: www.nwa.com, www.nwaalpa.org