Boeing 747-100 at Osaka Itami Airport ca. 1990, in post-merger Northwest livery During the postwar regulated era, Northwest's domestic network remained focused around the northern transcontinental route through New York, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis and Seattle. Northwest also served Hawaii from the West Coast, and Georgia and Florida from Chicago. On June 1, 1959, Northwest accepted its first turboprop jet aircraft, the Lockheed L-188 Electra, from its manufacturer. Northwest Airlines started flying the three-engine Boeing 727 jet airliner in November 1964, when its first short fuselage series 51 was delivered. Many examples of the stretched series 251 followed.
After airline deregulation in 1978, Northwest began nonstop flights to other Asian cities, returned to China in 1984 after a 34 year hiatus, and strengthened its presence in the southwestern United States. It also began flying to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia.[citation needed] On May 21, 1984, shareholders in Northwest approved the creation of NWA Inc., a Delaware corporation that became the holding company of Northwest.
On October 1, 1986, Northwest merged with Republic Airlines, also based in Minneapolis-St. Paul. It was the largest airline merger in history at the time and it initially caused numerous operational issues which led the combined carrier to have an on-time performance of just 42 percent in its early days. Through the merger, NWA adopted Republic's three-hub domestic network centered around Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, and Memphis. The combined airline became particularly strong in the first two cities, with a market share of over 80% in each.[18] Northwest dropped the word Orient from its brand name after the merger.
One major reason for the merger was that Northwest's unique position as a domestic and transpacific carrier had been challenged in 1985 when United Airlines acquired the Pacific Division of Pan Am.
A Northwest Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30. Northwest was the last major passenger airline to fly the DC-10 when its last one was retired on January 8, 2007. Northwest continued to use the pre-merger Northwest Orient livery (minus the word "Orient" until a new livery and identity (designed by Landor Associates) were adopted in 1989. The new livery, nicknamed the "bowling shoe" by employees, featured colors of red, white, gray, and blue.
Northwest was purchased in a 1989 leveraged buyout by an investment group headed by Al Checchi, Fred Malek and Gary Wilson, with KLM, and many others. To pay off the debt incurred in their takeover, the new management sold many of the airline's aircraft to leasing companies, and sold property around the world, including land in central Tokyo. The expense of the buyout was so great that in 1993, following several years of losses due to industry overcapacity and a traffic downturn following the Gulf War, Northwest threatened bankruptcy unless its employee groups agreed to three years of wage cuts. After signing the concessionary agreements, Northwest made its first profit since 1989.
This Northwest Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 was painted in a hybrid Northwest-KLM livery to advertise the alliance between the two airlines. Also in 1993, Northwest began its strategic alliance with KLM, which was the largest airline partnership ever conceived at the time. This partnership eventually became the Wings Alliance. However, the alliance never grew beyond the two airlines. Northwest gradually pulled out of its minor European destinations and once more focused its attention on the domestic and Asian markets. On May 1, 1996 Northwest began its first nonstop service from the U.S. to China, on the Detroit–Beijing route. Nonstop Detroit-Shanghai service followed in April 2000. Later, these nonstop services were suspended in 2002 due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).[citation needed] Northwest then served these routes via Tokyo. The airline sought government approval to restore nonstop Detroit-Shanghai service in March 2007 but lost its bid to United's Washington Dulles-Beijing route; however, before their merger with Delta Air Lines, Northwest received tentative authority to restart nonstop Detroit-Shanghai service starting March 25, 2009.
Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Northwest enjoyed profits and focused on improving technology to increase convenience while reducing costs. The airline offered airport self-service check-in kiosks starting in 1997, and had more than any other airline. Northwest was also the first large U.S. airline to offer passengers internet check-in, with service from December 2000. During the early 2000s, Northwest Airlines acquired a reputation of refusing to adopt industry-wide fare increases that had been accepted by other airlines. This changed in March 2005, when Northwest adopted fare hikes in response to rising oil prices.
747-251B in the "Bowling Shoe" livery. This livery was used from 1989 until 2003. Due to the effects of competition from low-cost carriers such as Southwest Airlines and increased labor costs resulting from a new contract with employees represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) labor union, Northwest began to make cutbacks in early 2001. Two small rounds of employee layoffs and other cutbacks were implemented in the months prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Following the attacks, Northwest was forced to make dramatic changes to its business structure through major employee layoffs and other cost cutting measures. The retirement of costly and aging aircraft such as the Boeing 727 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40 were accelerated as new aircraft went into service. In addition, the airline pursued options to reduce costs across the board, including removing pillows, peanuts, pretzels, in-flight entertainment on domestic flights, and newspapers and magazines. Over 50 McDonnell Douglas DC-9, Boeing 757, Boeing 747, and Airbus A320 family aircraft were withdrawn from use in an attempt to lower overall capacity and save money. Some of these aircraft were returned to service.[citation needed]
Following many years of a pioneering and close partnership with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Northwest, along with partners KLM and Continental Airlines joined SkyTeam, an airline alliance of ten airlines from around the world, on September 15, 2004. This was partially a result of Air France acquiring KLM, forming the Air France-KLM group. The airline continued to hemorrhage money, however.
