Northwest Cancels Some Transatlantic Flights

Got this in an e-mail from a travel agent I know. Has anyone else heard about this?

Northwest cancels transatlantic flights
June 27, 2008

High fuel costs have prompted Northwest and transatlantic partner KLM to seasonally suspend one flight and cancel two others on Oct.1.

Minneapolis/St. Paul-Paris will be seasonally suspended and Detroit-Dusseldorf and Hartford, Conn.-Amsterdam will be canceled.

Northwest said frequency reductions and aircraft type changes may be implemented on additional transatlantic flights, depending on oil prices and customer demand.

 

Unbelievable.

 

I agree. But as in "Northwest flew Detroit-Dusseldorf and Hartford-Amsterdam!?! Were those flights even half full?"

 

Can't believe BDL/Amsterdam had that much of a load problem. Lotta territory between NYC and Boston, and a lot of people who may not be enamored of Kennedy, LaGuardia, or Logan.

 

Northwest's primary market is trans-Pacific flights. When those start getting whacked, it'll be time to really perk up.

 

Honestly, the first thing I wondered was "who the hell is flying Twin Cities to Paris direct?"

 

Detroit-Dusseldorf did well (and added, I believe) when Daimler owned Chrysler.
NWA had been trying to create mini-hubs in Milwaukee, Indy and Hartford.

 

I have a friend who flies frequently from Minneapolis to Beijing on a direct flight. He said it's always packed.

 

That's what I thought when I saw the story in the Star Tribune last week.

Not surprised the flights to Beijing are packed. I connected through Detroit one time and walked by the gate where the flight to Tokyo was boarding. The line was unbelievable.

 

If you live in the upper midwest and are traveling to Europe flying out of MSP is usually a much easier option than out of O'Hare.

 

I never knew you could fly to Europe without flying into Frankfurt.

 

from last week ...

BC-CT--Bradley-Europe Flights, 3rd Ld-Writethru,0503<
Northwest to end daily Europe flight from Conn.<
Northwest to end Connecticut's only nonstop daily flight to Europe, citing high fuel costs
Eds: SUBS graf 12 to CORRECT that airports have not lost all commercial service. Moving on general news and financial services.

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (AP) _ Northwest Airlines Inc., citing record high fuel prices, says it will end its daily, nonstop service to Amsterdam from Bradley International Airport.
The loss of the direct flight to Europe from Connecticut, which began a year ago, undermines _ but does not cripple _ the ability by regional officials to boost economic development, said Oz Griebel, president and chief executive of the Metro Hartford Alliance.
"We lost a very significant arrow. We did not lose the quiver," he said. "No one of these things is a fatal blow to this region."
Northwest Airlines announced it also will suspend flights between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Paris and from Detroit to Dusseldorf, Germany. Cancellation of the routes is effective Oct. 1.
"With oil reaching a record-breaking $140 a barrel today, the reductions come in response to soaring fuel costs and decreased customer demand," Northwest said Thursday.
Kiran Jain, director of marketing and route development at Bradley, said there was little if anything the airport or state economic development officials could have done to prevent Northwest from pulling the plug on the trans-Atlantic flight.
"This is really a reflection of spiraling fuel prices instead of any incentive package you can put together," she said.
The announcement came just a day after Delta Air Lines said it will end its flights in September from Bradley to Los Angeles, the airport's only nonstop service to the West Coast. Soaring fuel prices also were cited.
Joan McDonald, commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, said Northwest assured state officials that the route was a business success.
"What they did acknowledge to us is that revenue numbers and passenger numbers were promising," she said. "It's clearly something we're disappointed in because it was and will be until Oct. 1 a real selling point to Connecticut companies that have locations in Europe and elsewhere."
David A. Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, said small and medium-sized airports are being hit hard by sharply higher fuel prices as airlines cut service.
One hundred small airports, such as those in Hagerstown, Md., Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Rutland, Vt., have lost some commercial service since last year or will have service discontinued by the end of this year, he said.
That number could double to 200 airports if fuel prices don't come down, Castelveter said.
"The system is being downsized. Small communities are losing service entirely," he said.
When the Hartford-to-Amstersdam service was launched last year, state officials hailed it as a major benefit for businesses and travelers in Connecticut and western Massachusetts.
"What the Amsterdam air service did for us was allow us to put a spotlight on the region which we were not able to do otherwise," Griebel said. "We're optimistic that when some kind of normalcy returns to oil pricing _ whatever normalcy means _ that as airlines begin to look at coming back in the marketplace, Bradley will be back in the mix, particularly for Amsterdam."