Northwest flights appear back to normal

EAGAN, Minn., July 2 (UPI) -- Cancellations and scheduling disruptions at Northwest Airlines Corp. appeared to be corrected Monday, a Detroit published report said.

The airline, which had canceled 12 percent of its 1,400 daily mainline flights for a week because of bad weather and a pilot shortage, canceled about 2 percent of them Monday, The Detroit News reported.

A 1 percent to 2 percent cancellation rate is normal.

Northwest said Friday it planned to rectify the problem by cutting its summer capacity, increasing its pilot ranks and changing its trip schedules to minimize the effects of storms and air-traffic congestion on the rest of its network, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Northwest Chief Executive Officer Doug Steenland said in a letter to employees the cumulative effect of the pilot shortage, storms and air-traffic congestion "left us no choice" but to cancel flights, the Journal said.

Pilot absenteeism was up 40 percent in June compared with May and up 80 percent from a year earlier, he said.

The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents Northwest's 5,000 active pilots, denied that its members are engaged in a job action.

The Eagan, Minn., carrier stepped out of bankruptcy-court protection a month ago with new, more productive labor contracts.