Northwest Airlines freezing U.S. routes

EAGAN, Minn., March 15 (UPI) -- Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines, which lost $878 million last year, is freezing domestic routes at 2004 levels but will increase foreign routes.

The airline had planned to increase U.S. routes by 2 percent to 3 percent this year but continued to post losses. Northwest said it faces rising fuel costs and fare cuts by competing airlines.

Northwest ranked last among the 11 largest U.S. carriers in the J.D. Power and Associates airline customer satisfaction survey of 3,100 passengers.

Airlines were rated for check-in/boarding/departing, reservations/scheduling, aircraft interior, in-flight amenities and flight crew.

A Northwest spokeswoman said the carrier was third in Fortune magazine's most recent global airline survey, the St. Paul Pioneer Press said. Northwest had the second best on-time performance among major airlines according to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics.

Discount airline JetBlue was No. 1 in the J.D. Power survey with top marks for its aircraft interiors and in-flight amenities. Southwest got high marks for in-flight operations.