Northwest Airlines Corp. has taken another step toward getting its Compass Airlines subsidiary off the ground.
The U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday granted a request by Compass to begin flying. Once it gets Federal Aviation Administration approval it would be the third regional carrier flying for Northwest.
Compass has said it could have as many as 36 small jets flying within five years, although its start date has not been set.
Compass will compete with Northwest's two other regional feeders, Mesaba Airlines and Pinnacle Airlines, for regional flights under the Northwest Airlink name. Those two carriers get all of their business from Northwest, and Mesaba, like Northwest, is reorganizing under bankruptcy protection.
It's not clear how Compass will affect Mesaba and Pinnacle, whose fleets already have shrunk as Northwest reorganizes.
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