Northwest Airlines Corp. announced an expansion of its European service in what analysts said is a sign the company has all but wrapped up its bankruptcy restructuring and is again focusing on improving the business.
The expansion will include daily flights, beginning next spring, from its Detroit hub to two new destinations: Duesseldorf, Germany, and Brussels, Belgium. Northwest is also adding flights to its existing service to Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Northwest Chief Executive Doug Steenland on Wednesday called it "the largest expansion of international service in Northwest's history." The airline's other European destinations include London, Paris, and Frankfurt, Germany.
The announcement comes as Northwest is preparing to emerge from bankruptcy protection in mid-2007.
"At the same time we're reorganizing our business, we're also being laser-like focused on finding new and better ways to serve our customers," Steenland said at a news conference at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
Steenland said the announcement shows the airline, which he said had shrunk about 10 percent compared with last year, is ready to grow again.
"They're showing they're back running the airline. The heavy lifting in the bankruptcy is over," analyst Ray Neidl, of Calyon Securities, said of Wednesday's announcement.
Airline consultant Alan Sbarra said the expansion fits with a strategy now popular among the so-called legacy carriers of avoiding competition by going to Europe.
"Duesseldorf and Brussels are secondary markets, but Northwest is going to have them to themselves as nonstops," Sbarra said.
Northwest plans to use Boeing 757s for the new service.
Northwest plans to begin service to Brussels on May 7 and to Duesseldorf on June 5. The flights will at first be offered five days a week, switching to daily service June 15.
On July 1, the airline will begin offering the first nonstop service from Hartford, Connecticut, to Amsterdam, its European hub.
In addition, Northwest said that together with its joint venture partner, Air France-KLM, it would add a second daily Boston-Amsterdam flight and a third New York-Amsterdam flight. It said it would boost the number of Detroit-Amsterdam flights per day from three to four in the winter and from four to five in the summer.
Northwest currently operates about 1,400 flights a day, including 507 from Detroit.
Steenland repeated Wednesday that he hopes to reach an agreement with the union representing Northwest's flight attendants. The airline has imposed cuts on the flight attendants with the permission of a bankruptcy judge. Negotiations are scheduled to resume next week.
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AP Business Writer Joshua Freed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
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