NORTHWEST NAMES MARY CARROLL LINDER SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT - CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS

Northwest Airlines has announced that it has named Mary Carroll Linder to the position of senior vice president - corporate communications. Linder will be responsible for the Company’s worldwide external and internal communications activities.

Linder, who will assume her duties after the first of the year, has been since 1996 the senior vice president for global communications at The Estee Lauder Companies, one of the world’s leading cosmetics companies. Prior to joining Estee Lauder, Linder was based in London as the senior communications officer at Grand Metropolitan PLC (now Diageo), one of the world’s leading consumer products companies which had more than $15 billion in annual revenue and operations in more than 100 countries. During her tenure at Grand Met, Linder also worked in Minnesota where she served as Vice President External Affairs - U.S. Operations. Earlier in her career Linder held senior public relations positions in the travel industry at Intercontinental Hotels Corporation and Hilton International.

“The airline business is fast-paced, high-profile and always in the news,” said Linder. “Northwest offers exciting opportunities for brand positioning and communications and the chance to work in a dynamic industry with a strong, focused management team. I’m looking forward to being a part of that group.”

“Mary is one of the leading corporate communications executives in the country,” said Doug Steenland, Northwest executive vice president and chief corporate officer. “She will help us make sure we are doing the best job possible communicating with our customers, our people, the media and the communities we serve.”

Linder is a graduate of Boston College where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature.

Northwest Airlines is the world's fourth largest airline offering more than 2,600 daily departures with hubs at Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Tokyo and Amsterdam. With its travel partners, Northwest serves more than 750 cities in 120 countries on 6 continents. Northwest and partner KLM Royal Dutch Airlines received Air Transport World's prestigious "1997 Airline of the Year" award and, based on statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Northwest was the most on-time U.S. airline among the seven largest network carriers for the period 1990-1999.

Northwest is the 2000 recipient of Air Transport World Airline Technology Management Award. Northwest's WorldPerks frequent flyer program is the highest rated U.S.-based program reviewed by InsideFlyer Magazine, the leading authority on airline free travel programs, and in 1999 was named the most preferred frequent flyer program by the readers of Time in Asia. WorldPerks received the special "Industry Impact Award" during InsideFlyer's 12th Annual Freddie Awards. In 1999, Northwest's nwa.com was chosen as best airline web site by zdNews.com and Business 2.0 and was named one of the top 500 sites by Internet World magazine.