Northwest Airlines Corp., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, was given more time by a judge Thursday to decide which property leases it will reject.

Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest, the nation's fourth-largest airline, has what court documents characterize as "numerous" unexpired leases of nonresidential property such as ticket sales offices in cities and suburbs. These ticket sales offices have been consolidated or closed by Northwest as part of an effort to cut costs.

"The properties are real properties we are no longer using and haven't been using for some time, such as certain sales offices and city ticket offices. To date, it has not included any hangars or gates," said Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch.

The airline now has another 180 days to decide which leases it will reject.

The New York bankruptcy judge also allowed the carrier, which is expecting a pretax loss of $1.7 billion for 2005 because of high fuel and wage costs, to prepay money owed for aircraft. Northwest plans to use the planes as collateral to obtain debtor-in-possession financing.

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