For the second-consecutive month since emerging from bankruptcy reorganization, Northwest Airlines is canceling large numbers of flights because of an apparent end-of-the-month pilot shortage.
Northwest spokesman Roman Blahoski said Monday that the carrier completed 96% of its flights over the weekend and expected to complete 97.2% of Monday's schedule.
That is much improved from the corresponding days in June, but still short of the industry's usual 98% target.
Those numbers also were worse than rival network airlines' performances, according to data from FlightStats.com.
On Sunday, Northwest canceled 76 flights, or 5.6% of those tracked by FlightStats.com. In comparison, American canceled six flights, or 0.3% of those tracked; United, 33, or 1.9%; and Delta, four, or 0.2%. All offer more daily flights than Northwest.
July's problems are not as severe as the one that forced Northwest to cancel more than 1,000 flights in the final 10 days of June. Those cancellations affected at least 125,000 travelers based on an estimated average of 125 passengers per flight.
After last month's cancellations, Northwest announced in late June that it is speeding up the recall and retraining of laid-off pilots, altering the way it schedules pilots' time each month, and adopting new procedures for accommodating affected travelers.
The airline also said it will reduce its flight schedule by 3% beginning in August to make sure its pilots don't run out of flight time before a month ends.
Last month, Northwest officials first blamed the pilot shortage on bad weather in early June that caused pilots to burn up too much of their monthly allotment of flying time too soon in the month.
Northwest's labor contract allows pilots to schedule up to 90 hours a month, with some additional voluntary overtime.
But leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association said management had laid off too many pilots while the company was in reorganization and had scheduled the carrier too aggressively in an effort to show creditors and the bankruptcy court better projections for costs and revenue.
Management ultimately conceded that their pilot staffing schedules had been too aggressive, but they also noted an unusually high rate of pilot absenteeism in the last two weeks of June.
Monty Montgomery, a Northwest captain and ALPA spokesman, said the union warned management early this year, but was ignored.
Pilots are "concerned that this is going to be a problem all summer," he added.
