NWA cutting back DC-9s but is hiring more pilots

Northwest Airlines plans to remove one-fourth of its old DC-9s from its fleet in 2008, but it does not intend to cut any pilot jobs.

The Eagan-based carrier said that it expects to increase the use of the remaining planes in its fleet and hire 200 to 250 pilots by the year's end.

Northwest spokesman Roman Blahoski said Friday that additional flying with other aircraft "is projected to more than offset the reduction in required DC-9 staffing."

Northwest's fleet of DC-9s is expected to drop from 92 in 2007 to 68 by the end of this year.

The airline is accelerating the removal of the DC-9s from its fleet. Ten months ago management intended to keep 78 of them through this year.

Northwest also will take three 747-200s out of operation this year.

"Everybody is evaluating fleet in the face of current oil prices," said William Swelbar, a research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Northwest pilots were notified of the fleet plans in a Thursday memo from Tim Rainey, senior vice president of flight operations.

Rainey also revealed that Northwest now expects to take delivery of its first Boeing 787 in April or May of 2009. He estimated that Northwest's first passenger flight with a 787 will occur in the summer of 2009.

Boeing announced more production delays of the new aircraft this week.

Northwest had planned to begin flying a nonstop Detroit-Shanghai route with the 787, or Dreamliner, in late March 2009. Instead of operating a new, fuel-efficient 787 with 221 seats, Northwest might need to initially put an older 747-400 on that route that seats 403 passengers.

Rainey said that the airline will continue to operate 57 Airbus A319s this year -- 10 more than anticipated in its bankruptcy reorganization plan.

By the end of this year, Rainey said Northwest plans to operate 329 planes in its mainline fleet -- 269 single-aisle planes and 60 wide-bodies.

"They have decided to increase international flying with the 757s and A330s," said Greg Rizzuto, a spokesman for the Northwest pilots union. Those overseas flights require larger pilot crews. He also noted that Northwest is increasing the number of hours in which planes are used and expanding the staffing of reserve pilots. The carrier's management also agreed to reduce the maximum number of hours that pilots fly per month.