Northwest Gives Boeing $2-Billion Jetliner Order

Northwest Airlines said Tuesday that it has ordered 20 Boeing jetliners, worth more than $2 billion, in the largest single purchase in the history of the seventh-largest U.S. air carrier.

The order, announced at a press conference here, is the second largest for Boeing, exceeded only by a $3-billion order placed by Delta Airlines in 1980.

Included in Northwest’s order are 10 Boeing 747-400s--the latest version of the Boeing jumbo jet--and 10 mid-size 757-200 jets. Northwest will thus be the first customer for the new 747 model. Deliveries are due between 1988 and 1990.

Also included in the order are three 747-200 model aircraft, due for delivery in 1986. Together, the 747s will cost about $1.5 billion, officials said.

The jumbo 747-400 aircraft will have a non-stop range of 8,000 miles. The planes were designed to specifications provided by Northwest for its transpacific routes, officials said. The planes will be able to carry up to 450 passengers. The 10 757-200 aircraft, which can carry 184 passengers, are intended for use in domestic flights.

Steven G. Rothmeier, Northwest’s chief executive, said the purchases would be financed in part from Northwest’s operating earnings and partly through the assumption of new debt.

“With an order on this scale, we will have to rely on some debt financing,” he said.

He asserted, however, that the purchases would not overburden the company’s balance sheet, and some analysts agreed.

“In this competitive environment, it’s difficult to say any airline is underleveraged, but Northwest has been among the most conservatively financed,” said Michael Hamilton, an analyst with Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood, a Minneapolis brokerage.

Hamilton said that Northwest will be aided in financing the purchases by tax depreciation benefits that will come to about $200 million a year between now and 1990.