NWA To Expand A320 Fleet In Asia But Strategy Unchanged By Steve Lott June 12, 2003 Northwest plans to operate eight Airbus A320 narrowbodies in its Asia/Pacific network this summer, a dramatic shift from its traditional Tokyo operation consisting of high-capacity jumbo aircraft, but CEO Richard Anderson said the carrier has not changed its strategy for the region. In his most recent message to employees, Anderson said the airline is still flying its full portfolio of airport and route slots. He said the carrier this summer will still have all the same service, but with smaller planes and fewer frequencies. We're in every market, but we've tried to get to the smallest gauge airplane," he said. The airline actually developed the strategy of using narrowbodies before the SARS pneumonia outbreak and even before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, as it wanted to take full advantage of Tokyo's second, shorter runway. A good example of the capacity change is the airline's Tokyo-Beijing route, which once operated with a 350-seat Boeing 747. Largely due to the SARS pneumonia scare and the general downturn in air travel, Northwest will operate the route with an A320. "We can substitute an A320 for a 747 and not lose any revenue because we're only carrying 70-100 passengers a day," he said. He reported that there will be eight A320s flying in the Pacific network this summer, and the only 747-200 that will be operating transpacific will be in the Seattle market. The San Francisco route will be operated with a Boeing/Douglas DC-10, Los Angeles a 747-400, and Minneapolis and Detroit will both have daily flights with a 747-400, as will New York Kennedy. In his message, Anderson also addressed the question of what happens when the market grows again. "We have plenty of capacity in the system," he said. Northwest is parking its 747-200s, which is giving it "down time" on airplanes that would have normally flown south and west of Tokyo Narita. Referring to the -200s as "whales," he said the aircraft will now sit in Narita while the other narrowbodies operate "interport." Anderson told staff that the airline will be in position to capture the traffic rebound in the Pacific. "But so long as we have the SARS situation that we have on our hands, we are not going to vary the strategy of the airline," he said. "We're flying our full slot portfolio and we're staying in all the markets." The only market where Northwest will pull out is Kaohsiung, "but that was experimental anyway," he noted. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************