NWA Pilot Staffing Shortage
NWA can't fully staff flights, pilots union says
Some flights have been canceled because of a shortage of pilots, the union said. Northwest declined to comment.
Liz Fedor, Star Tribune
Swimming upstream
Northwest Airlines has been canceling some of its flights because of a pilot staffing problem, the pilots union said Friday.
Neither the union nor the airline specified the number of DC-9 flights that have been canceled. Those domestic flights are the focus of the problem.
The cancellations come at a time when about 700 Northwest pilots are still on furloughs, and the airline flew 5.6 percent fewer seat-miles during September, compared with a year ago.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said Friday that "unwise management decisions to furlough the last group [of pilots] in January" contributed to the shortage of pilots.
In a message to its members, the Northwest pilots union also said that management waited too long to recall pilots. It reported that the company has less flexibility in scheduling pilots because it decided to "reduce the number of surplus pilots normally carried above the staffing formula minimum."
Northwest declined Friday to comment on the staffing problem.
"We expect management to move quickly to address these staffing issues," the union leadership told its members.
In August, the Northwest pilots union was told that the airline intended to recall 40 to 50 pilots this year. There are approximately 4,700 pilots currently flying for the carrier.
Northwest owns 105 DC-9s, and they constitute about a fifth of its fleet.
The pilots said the airline is weighing its flying plans for 2007, which may include an expansion of DC-9 routes, and also is examining the role of Pinnacle Airlines in the flying mix.
Wakefield Gordon, chairman of the Pinnacle pilots union, said Friday that there are about 1,200 pilots at his airline, which is operating 124 regional jets for Northwest. After its bankruptcy filing, Northwest removed 15 planes from Pinnacle's fleet. "During this whole period, we haven't furloughed one pilot," Gordon said.
Also Friday, Northwest said that it will resume talks with the Association of Flight Attendants during the week of Oct. 15. The National Mediation Board will convene the two parties, and the meetings will begin one week later than originally planned.