NWA confident in pilot plan: Airline says easing of overtime rules will cut flight cancellations

Aug. 29--The last days of August are bringing the first test for Northwest Airlines' new agreement with its pilots.

After thousands of flight cancellations in the waning days of June and July that were caused by a pilot shortage, the company said, work rules were changed.

In one month's time, can the airline turn around a performance record that included more than 4,000 canceled flights in June and July? Early indications are that travelers can breathe a little easier.

From Sunday through mid-day Tuesday the airline had no reported canceled flights.

"We do not foresee any issues," said Roman Blahoski, a spokesman for Eagan-based Northwest. "The changes put in place are working."

Northwest and its pilots agreed to a change in contract language that allows pilots to get overtime pay after flying 80 hours in a month -- instead of the previous 90 hours. The airline also has been calling back furloughed pilots and making new hires.

"I'd be stunned if people aren't looking at the airline every day as we get to the end of the month," said Bill Hochmuth, an analyst with Thrivent Asset Management, who follows Northwest. He thinks August will show improvement in Northwest's performance. "We saw (Northwest CEO Doug) Steenland, being strong in his opinion that everything will work out fine," Hochmuth said.

In an interview earlier this month on the NBC morning show "Today," Steenland said he does not expect another problem with end-of-month cancellations like the ones that caused travel headaches in June and July.

"We've been laser-like focused on fixing it," Steenland said. He noted that the first two weeks of August showed strong performance with very few cancellations for the airline.

Passengers with booked flights want to believe the problems are in the past. In recent weeks, travel agent Sheree Powers hasn't heard customers say they're hesitant to schedule Northwest flights for the end of the month.

"When it was happening in June and July, people were saying more," said Powers, who owns the Travel By Nelson agency in Woodbury. "But they have to come through with the promises they've made."

As Northwest pilots bumped against their maximum per-month flying hours toward the end of June and July, many refused to fly extra hours. The pilots union said there was no concerted labor action aimed at spiking the number of canceled flights.

Before the contract change, the pilots in the bottom two-thirds of the seniority list were flying those maximum hours month after month, said Monty Montgomery, spokesman for the Northwest unit of the Air Line Pilots Association.

"We feel the letter of agreement has inspired senior pilots to fly some additional hours," he said, which means there's less of a burden on lower-seniority pilots who had been putting in the long hours.

"The early indications are that it's going to be a very smooth end of the month," Montgomery said.

Nationally, air travel tends to decrease after Aug. 20, as people prepare to get kids back in school. September and October are traditionally among the slowest months for air travel, which should make Northwest's task of bringing on new pilots a little easier, analysts say.

The decrease in passenger volume also could help ease congestion in the skies, as the first half of 2007 featured some of the worst flight delays in decades, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The delays continued this summer as passenger numbers continued to climb, putting pressure on individual airports and the entire air traffic control system.

"This has been our busiest summer since 9/11," said Powers, whose agency caters to leisure travelers.

John Welbes can be reached at [email protected] or 651-228-2175.

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