zbc42782

Only one flight out of LaGuardia to DTW made it out today, and it was 72 minutes late. No NW flights to DTW made it ex-JFK. EWR fared better, but with massive delays.

DanTravels

Indeed. And I think NW is being very careful (and very smart) to note, publicly, that they're seeing these high levels of pilot absenteeism, while not making any accusations. If it gets to the point where there really are enough pilots, and the absentee rates go higher, they've already laid the groundwork for legal action.

SeaMeFly

^@:-) From airliners.net, socalfive wrote:

Dear NW management,

This is a perfect example of "What goes 'round, comes 'round."

Sincerely,

Your Employee Groups
Vendors &
Customers

sxf24

The cancellations are largely the Airbus and DC9s, which are flown by more junior pilot groups.

xliioper

Well, detnews.com now has an opinion piece up with a photo of LBJ and kids from the 2002 open house for the McNamara terminal. Notice the 744 in old colors. I found it amusing that the caption referred to us as "fliers" even though we were just there to tour the new terminal (NW was still a few weeks away from moving to the terminal).

borneo

NW problem is they kept too many pilots on furlough for too long... when they finally decided to call them back many declined to come back because they already sought greener pastures.

itsaboutthejourney

I was on the phone with the Plat desk tonight about a ticketing issue and they apologized for the hold and said they were slammed with all the cancelations. When I joked about too many pilots calling in sick the agent added that weather on the East coast magnified those problems and its been hard for them to rebook to other airlines because of the weather. YMMV.

Excellent service from the Platinum Desk as usual.

doobierw

NWA is also cancelling flights with aircrew who are perfectly legal to fly their trips. Several instances over on the pilot chat boards of pilots whose 4 day trips are being cut short into 2 day trips by scheduling. They don't understand it either.......

doobierw

NWA thought they had a ready supply of 900 pilots in the bank. In reality, like you said, many of us have moved on. A good number of these guys have been out since just after September of 2001.......it's 2007 now! Would you wait 6 or 7 years to go back to an employer who you worked for maybe 3 to 9 months?

I worked there for two years, was furloughed for two years, was called back and quit my 'new' job to go back. Eight months later they re-furloughed me..... I'm one of the 900 they were counting on to come back, but I'm not gullible enough to fall for it a third time. I'm working for an airline that 'gets it' now, and I'm not going back to be a part of Steenland's mess.

JGR01

AA's cancellations may well be weather related as DFW and the east coast suffered major bad weather (again) [a normal occurance lately].

I was in MSP on Saturday and the AA Gate Agent told me their flights were all overbooked since NW was cancelling flights and trying to accomodate pax on other airlines.

Flaflyer

I got a cancel the last week of June. Something about "no pilots". For a DC-9? They are out of DC-9 pilots?

OTOH, NW sent an apology letter the next day and also the next day 5000 WP miles posted in my account. To the NW corporate readers here on FT: These little things show you might really care and do work to keep legacy loyalty. You are on the right track there, keep it up. ^

Of course, I would rather have my original flight than 5000 miles, given the choice. Well, most of the time.

For devans and all the rest, it appears NW has authorized their gate agents to do What It Takes to rebook you. You got rebooked on UAL? Since when have NW and UA been partners? I did not know that NW computers could even pull up non-Skyteam schedules. Due to my cancelled flight all my other flights would be missed. The GA totally reworked my schedule and without me asking came up with a better schedule than my original itinerary. I was totally blown away when he rebooked me on the FINEST airplane ride I have ever experienced: Raffles Class on Singapore Airlines. NW and everyone else can cancel all the flights they want if they rebook me on SQ. ^

sfozrhfco

There were plenty of 757 cancellations too.

DTW-HomeyFour

I've just booked a full-fare Y ticket, DTW-YUL for tomorrow morning on a D9S. I have to get to YUL, and I need to get there in the morning, so that kind of rules out connecting unless I leave tonight, which I don't want to do. To be honest I wouldn't have minded flying UA on a Y-UP or something, but from DTW it just adds so much time to have to connect when the nonstop flight time is only about an hour and a half. I'm taking my chances for convenience.

NWAFA

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/

Northwest is again being swamped with cancellations resulting from not enough pilots being available to fly its flights. The airline canceled more than 200 flights Sunday according to the Detroit Free Press. Overall, media reports put the airline's number of canceled flights over the weekend at more than 500. Northwest management blames pilot "absenteeism," a charge that the pilots union vociferously denies. "We told them we had staffing issues months ago," says Air Line Pilots Association spokesman Monty Montgomery. "The pilots have absolutely no plan to try to disrupt flights at Northwest."
Wade Blaufuss, another pilots union spokesman, tells the Minneapolis Star Tribune (free registration) that "this is a staffing issue. If it were strictly a morale issue, absenteeism would be systemwide" and would affect pilots flying all plane types. In a Friday memo to employees, NWA CEO Doug Steenland said the alleged sick calls are coming from pilots on narrow-body jets, such as NWA's DC-9s, Airbus A319s, A320s and Boeing 757s. The union says its pilots are running up against their 90-hour contractual flying limit for a month, and that there simply aren't enough pilots in reserve.
Whatever the cause, The Detroit News says the cancellations appeared to be racking up again this morning, with 18 cancellations at Northwest's Detroit hub just by 7 a.m. ET. That comes despite claims by Northwest on Sunday that today's flight schedule was expected to be better, according to the Star-Tribune. The airline had the same problem last month, canceling more than 1,000 flights at the end of the month as pilots began to run up against their 90-hour monthly maximum.
In addition to catching its customers in the crossfire, NWA's crew-staffing dispute is tarnishing the airline's already beleaguered reputation. "Their public relations approach on this has been abysmal," airline industry observer Terry Trippler tells the Free Press. "Pilots, at 90 hours, are tired and fatigued," he adds. "The public's support is with the pilots. August should tell the story and whether major changes need to be made at Northwest Airlines."

sany2

The free press has confirmed that the flight cancellations are, in large part, due to pilots calling in sick.