NORTHWEST AIRLINES REPORTS NOVEMBER TRAFFIC

Northwest Airlines (Nasdaq: NWAC) today announced a system-wide November load factor of 69.9 percent, 4.6 points below November 2000. Northwest flew 4.72 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) on 6.75 billion available seat miles (ASMs) in November 2001, resulting in a traffic decrease of 21.7 percent on a 16.5 percent year-over-year decline in capacity.

During the week of Thanksgiving (November 19-26), Northwest reported a domestic load factor of 76.7 percent, reaching 87.9 percent on Sunday, which was 1.1 points below the comparable period in 2000. Northwest's on-time arrival rate was 84.7 percent and completion factor was 99.4 percent during the same period.

A $1.8 million investment in expanded security checkpoint capacity and check-in technology made it possible for the airline to allow its Thanksgiving travelers to arrive at the airport just 75 minutes prior to departure, the shortest amount of time in the airline’s history. As an example, customers at the airline’s Minneapolis/St. Paul hub waited an average of 10 minutes in security lines during the Thanksgiving holiday.

November's load factor demonstrates Northwest’s continued recovery from the impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks. November’s system-wide load factor was 3.6 points above the 66.3 percent load factor reported in October 2001. November's domestic load factor was 71.3 percent, 1.7 points above October's domestic load factor of 69.6 percent. The November domestic load factor, based on 14.8 percent less capacity, was 0.4 points below the 71.7 percent domestic load factor reported in November 2000.

NORTHWEST AIRLINES TRAFFIC SUMMARY (000 omitted)

 

Northwest Airlines is the world's fourth largest airline with hubs at Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Tokyo and Amsterdam and more than 1,400 daily departures. With its travel partners, Northwest serves more than 750 cities in 120 countries on six continents. 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 1990-2000.