Judge Lets Northwest Surrender More Planes

Northwest Airlines Corp., the nation's fourth-largest airline, can abandon leases on another 100 planes, a bankruptcy judge said Thursday, which could allow the carrier to cut flights.

So far, the judge has given Northwest the approval to reject the leases of more than 200 planes, although the carrier has said it does not plan to abandon all of them.

The aircraft are leased to Northwest by Wells Fargo & Co., the U.S. Bank National Association and Finova Capital Corp., among others.

Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest filed for bankruptcy protection Sept. 14. The airline, which is expecting a pretax loss of $1.7 billion for 2005 due to high fuel and labor costs, is wrestling with a mechanics strike. Northwest last week resumed hiring permanent replacements for striking mechanics, after their union refused to put the company's latest offer to a vote.

Northwest will keep negotiating with unions between now and Nov. 16, the date set for a hearing that will address labor issues, said Northwest lawyer Bruce Zirinsky of law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP.

At that hearing, Northwest lawyers said they will also present their settlement with American Express Co. Northwest had sued the credit card company's travel services unit, which the airline claims withheld payments worth about $63.4 million for tickets on its flights.

On Thursday, New York bankruptcy judge Allan Gropper also approved a motion in which Northwest will work with various airports to collect passenger fees.

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