Winging It
A potential strike against Northwest Airlines Corp. already has disrupted travel plans for more than 25,000 people and threatens to cause problems for tens of thousands more this weekend.
Northwest’s 6,200 pilots are set to strike Friday at 9:01 p.m. PDT unless their union, the Air Line Pilots Assn., reaches a last-minute agreement with the company. The parties were still negotiating late Wednesday.
A walkout would shut down Northwest--the fourth-largest domestic airline, with 12% of the traffic handled by U.S. carriers--and snarl the travel system during its hectic, end-of-summer season.
Northwest, which carries an average of 150,000 people a day, has 1,700 daily flights serving about 160 cities in 23 countries. It’s also a leading U.S. carrier to Japan and other Pacific Rim destinations.
Indeed, a strike would be acutely felt at major California airports, because Los Angeles and San Francisco are gateways for Northwest’s busy service to Asia. Northwest’s domestic hubs at airports in Minneapolis/St. Paul (where the airline is headquartered), Detroit and Memphis, Tenn., also would be hard hit.
Northwest, saying it wanted to “minimize confusion” in the event of a strike, canceled 400 flights scheduled for Friday and Saturday, including four at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, so that the 25,000 passengers booked on those flights can make alternate plans. The Saturday flights will remain canceled even if a strike is averted.
Friday flights canceled were Flight 117 from Minneapolis/St. Paul, which was scheduled to arrive at 6:50 p.m., and Flight 205 from Detroit, with an 8:23 p.m. arrival time. Northwest has two other direct flights from Minneapolis daily and one from Detroit.
Canceled Saturday were Flight 116, scheduled to depart for Minneapolis at 6:45 a.m., and Flight 208 to Detroit at 8:30 a.m. Northwest has later flights to both cities Saturday from Orange County.
Northwest also canceled some flights between Los Angeles and Tokyo.
No other flights are expected to be canceled ahead of a strike, Northwest added.
Many customers already had defected from Northwest for fear of a strike. Rival carriers, such as industry leader United Airlines--a unit of UAL Corp. and Northwest’s main U.S. competitor on Asian routes--said their bookings jumped in recent days as people holding Northwest reservations switched flights.
“We have seen an increase in bookings across the board, including transpacific routes,” said United spokeswoman Mary Jo Holland.
The nation’s travelers last prepared for an airline strike 18 months ago, when contract talks broke down between American Airlines, the nation’s second-largest carrier and a unit of AMR Corp., and its 9,300 pilots.
American’s pilots actually walked out for a few minutes on the eve of the Presidents Day holiday weekend. But President Clinton then invoked a rarely used emergency measure that ordered the pilots back to work while a presidential panel reviewed the dispute.
It is unclear whether the president would do the same at Northwest. Although a shutdown of Northwest would cause problems coast to coast, it likely would not be as disruptive as a strike against American, which controls 20% of the U.S. airlines’ market.
A White House spokesman said Wednesday that Clinton has not yet decided whether he would intervene, adding, “We want them to resolve their differences at the bargaining table.”
After the American Airlines action, Clinton administration officials emphasized that the move was not meant to set a precedent. Northwest has quietly urged the White House to step in anyway if a strike occurs, but ALPA and several Democratic House members have asked the president to stay clear.
Some analysts also have noted that ALPA, with its ties to the AFL-CIO and its own financial support of Democratic causes, could prompt Clinton to take a more pro-labor stance than in the case of American, whose pilots are represented by an independent union.
Northwest contends that a strike would “be a disaster” for the traveling public, and it predicts that nearly 70,000 of its passengers--3,600 flying over the Pacific Ocean--would be stranded on the first day of the walkout.
ALPA contends those figures “are inflated” because they do not account for all of the passengers now making alternate arrangements, said union spokesman Paul Omodt. Still, “there is no doubt it [a strike] will be an inconvenience,” he said.
Northwest shares, which hit a 52-week low of $28.50 last week, fell 44 cents in Nasdaq trading on Wednesday, closing at $29.06.
Times staff writer E. Scott Reckard in Orange County contributed to this report.
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Carrying Forward
Northwest Airlines is the fourth-largest domestic carrier based on revenue passenger miles, an industry benchmark that measures passenger traffic. Market share for the leading U.S. carriers in 1997.
United: 20.0%
American: 17.7%
Delta: 16.5%
Northwest: 12.0%
Continental: 7.3%
US Airways: 6.9%
Southwest: 4.1%
Source: Air Transport Assn.
