Some Local Northwest Flights Canceled Due to Staffing Issues

Northwest Airlines has had to cancel some flights in Lincoln over the past month because of a crew shortage at the airline that operates the flights.

But Lincoln Airport officials and Pinnacle Airlines, which operates the flights, disagree on the scope of the problem.

Bob McNally, director of operations at Lincoln Airport, said 20 Northwest Airlink flights had been canceled in the past 30 days because of "crew limitation or schedule changes."

"It has happened fairly frequently," McNally said.

The most frequently canceled flight, according to McNally, has been Northwest's last arrival of the day from Minneapolis and the corresponding early departure the next day to the same city.

Philip Reed, a spokesman for Pinnacle Airlines, disputed that number, saying Pinnacle's system shows only 10 crew-related cancellations in Lincoln since Feb.1.

There were also 19 other cancellations in February and March because of weather or maintenance issues, Reed said.

He downplayed the crew-related cancellations, saying they were done pre-emptively to deal with a pilot shortage caused by a large number of the company's pilots taking jobs with major airlines .

Affected passengers were contacted 14 days before the cancellations and given a chance to rebook.

Reed said the situation, which also has affected a few other cities, is mostly resolved, although there may be scattered cancellations through the end of March.

Though Reed said Pinnacle had managed to accommodate all fliers, Lincoln Airport officials heard a different story.

Airport Authority board members were told at their monthly meeting Tuesday that some customers were forced to fly out of Omaha instead of Lincoln, while others were rebooked on United Airlines.

"It's been kind of a pain," Martin Lewandowski, Pinnacle's local station manager, told the board.

Don Smithey, executive director of Omaha's Eppley Airfield, said he was not aware of any cancellations there of flights operated by Pinnacle.

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.