Northwest Parking Passenger 747-200s

[PushenPullenWerker]

Northwest announced today that they will be closing their remaining two 747-200 pilot bases. Honolulu and Minneapolis 747 bases will be closed effective 01 November 2003. This means a total closure of the Honolulu pilot base while Minneapolis will still have DC-10, 757, A320 and DC-9.

They announced further plans to re-open the Honolulu DC-10 base in May 2004 to service the KIX market. NW previously closed its DC-10 base in Honolulu in 2002.

Sounds like NWA has reversed themselves. They originally planned to park all the remaining DC-10s as the A-330 came on line and use the old 747-200s in the Pacific. Now it seems they will use the A-330 for Europe, 747-400 for Trans Pac/Interport and A-320 for Pacific Interport. The DC-10s will be used to service the HNL-KIX market.

I guess I will now be commuting to work as Honolulu was the only NW crew base worth living in...

 

[nwa400]

Yes you will probably be doing the reverse commute and I will wind up using a web page name like.....(nwa.dc-9)for real, OUCH! This is not fun for anyone but I really feel for the guys and gals that will be hitting the street because of this. Lets just thank God that we have jobs. Can it get any worse for our industry?

 

[GEO]

Can it get any worse??? are you serious??? One more ''event'' and we''re all history for a (long) while! Say your prayers.

 

[AAG2000]

Apparently it''s not just HNL-KIX. SFO-NRT and NRT-SIN will also be switching to DC-10''s in June.

 

[nwa400]

GEO, That was a rhetorical question. I know the shape of the industry.

 

[PushenPullenWerker]

The DC-10 will service SFO only until the new A330-200 arrives in enough quantity to service the pacific market. The 747 freighter base in ANC will increase in size modestly as HNL and MSP close, but not enough to prevent massive displacements and massive training costs. Anyone want to bet that management will ask for contractual relief on training?


IMO, if NW management had been smart, they would re-open the HNL DC-10 base in conjunction with closing the 747 base, they could at least save on the $20K per paid move to the mainland. I bet that most of the existing HNL pilots that live in Hawaii would have immediately bid the DC-10 if that choice had been available.

Under current contract rules, the HNL DC-10 pilots that were displaced in the 2002 closure will now get first crack at the new base in 2004 if they haven''t given up their recall rights. NW will now get to pay for moves from Hawaii to mainland in October/November, from mainland to Hawaii in May 2004, and even more moves as the system flush continues and the May 2004 pilots get displaced by more senior pilots in the following months.

I wonder where I will end up commuting from...

 

[KALB2]

After watching a program on "Discovery Wings" channel on air freight which followed a NW 747-200F around Asia and back to ANC, I became curious as to whether or not the flight crews also flew 747-200 passenger flights. Do NW 747-200 flight crews fly both passenger flights and cargo flights, or are they separate lines?

 

[nwa400]

Yes, they do fly both. They may fly to NRT in a freighter and then to HNL in a pax aircraft. The flight deck is pretty much the same.

 

[ss278]

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On 6/2/2003 12:39:34 PM KALB2 wrote:

After watching a program on "Discovery Wings" channel on air freight which followed a NW 747-200F around Asia and back to ANC, I became curious as to whether or not the flight crews also flew 747-200 passenger flights. Do NW 747-200 flight crews fly both passenger flights and cargo flights, or are they separate lines?

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I saw the same program and was wondering the same thing. Also, will ANC now be the only 747-200 base or are there others, SEA for example?

 

[whaledriver]

Do you recall the title of the "Discovery Wings" show with the Northwest Cargo flight...like to check it out.

 

[KALB2]

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On 6/2/2003 8:25:51 PM whaledriver wrote:

Do you recall the title of the "Discovery Wings" show with the Northwest Cargo flight...like to check it out.

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I''m not sure but I think it was simply "Air Freight". In addition to the NW 747-200F mission it also had a segment on FedEx shipment of CART race cars to Australia, and Air France shipping le Bogoulais Nouveau. It is repeated periodically.

 

[firstamendment]

Hey, its a strange world we live in. I am a f/a for U and it still cracks me up to see f/a''s and pilots commuting to PHL and LGA from PIT. Who would had thought.

BTW, the A330 is a very nice plane and the passengers seem to really like it. I hope you guys get a killer inflight entertainment system. Ours, PASSPORT, has a few problems but the system is such that a seat can be reset or if there is a bigger problem, the entire system can be rebooted. 6-8 movies. 4-5 sitcoms, countless short subjects, and lots of musical channels. The best part? No bathroom lines. You can stop and go at your leisure...great for the f/a''s.

Good luck to all

 

[emily]

Every Airline Pilot on the planet needs to go to Landings.com and read the article "Captain Icarus?"
This s_ _ _ has got to stop!