Northwest named Neal Cohen as chief financial officer. Cohen, 45, was chief financial officer for US Airways Group Inc. from April 2002 until April 2004, and had worked in several marketing and finance positions at Northwest from 1991 to 2000.
Han was named Northwest's chief financial officer in October 2002 after working for seven years at America West Airlines. He had previously worked at Northwest and at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines in finance positions.
''We sincerely appreciate Bernie's contributions during a critical time for Northwest Airlines,'' chief executive Doug Steenland said. He credited Han with helping ''reduce significantly our non-labor costs while maintaining one of the best liquidity positions in the industry.''
Northwest lost $458 million during its first quarter, and has been struggling with high fuel costs, as well as labor costs that it says are too high. Northwest had $2.1 billion in unrestricted cash at the quarter ending March 31, 2005.
Steenland has said that the troubles at Northwest and in the airline industry have made it tougher to retain executives. On Oct. 1, chief executive Richard Anderson resigned to become executive vice president at health-care insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc.
Also Tuesday, Northwest announced that T. Jeffrey Putnam has been promoted to senior vice president of finance. He had been vice president of financial planning and analysis.
Northwest shares dropped 2 cents to $5.00 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
