Posted on: Friday, July 4, 2003

Northwest Airlines to lay off 139 locally-based employees

Advertiser Staff

Northwest Airlines said yesterday it will lay off 139 Hawai'i-based employees, including 134 pilots, beginning in October, because of a drop in passengers related to the SARS epidemic.

"I regret to notify you of Northwest Airline Inc.'s intent to lay off company employees in Hawai'i due to the sudden emergence of the SARS epidemic and its dramatic impact on our operations," Robert Brodin said in a letter to the Hawai'i Workforce Development Division.

Northwest said in the letter that the layoffs are expected to be permanent.

Cristy Cote, a spokeswoman for Northwest, said there were no further details immediately available.

In addition to the 134 pilots, the company will lay off one base manager, one regional director of flying, one administrative associate and two support associates.

The letter said the principal employment site for the laid-off workers is NWA Flight Operations at Honolulu International Airport.

Northwest, the fourth largest airline, has lost more than $1.5 billion since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

In March, the airline announced plans to cut 4,900 jobs out of a work force that stood at 44,300 at the end of 2002 and reduce its flight schedule by 12 percent. At that time, St. Paul, Minn.-based Northwest said it would use layoffs, attrition and voluntary leaves and leave open positions unfilled to make the job cuts.

Its Mainland business seemed to be picking up recently and on June 11 the airline said it would recall about 275 baggage handlers and customer service agents at least through August to help with increased demand.

But SARS has had a major impact on travel to Asia, a key market for Northwest. Earlier this year Northwest canceled three flights — two round trips from Tokyo to Hong Kong and one Osaka-Honolulu round trip — because of the Iraq war and SARS.