Northwest Airlines, Inc. (often abbreviated NWA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, Inc., is a major United States[1] airlineheadquartered in Eagan, Minnesota, near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Northwest has three major hubs in the United States:Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, and Memphis International Airport. Northwest also operates flights from its Asian hub at Tokyo Narita International Airport (Japan). Transatlantic flights are operated from its European hub atAmsterdam Airport Schiphol in cooperation with its partner airline KLM. In October 2009, the airline's operations center was relocated toDelta's headquarters in Atlanta.[2]
As of 2006, Northwest was the world's sixth largest airline in terms of domestic and international scheduled passenger miles flown and the U.S.'s sixth largest airline in terms of domestic passenger miles flown.[3] In addition to operating one of the largest domestic route networks in the U.S., Northwest carries more passengers across the Pacific Ocean (5.1 million in 2004) than any other U.S. carrier, and carries more domestic air cargo than any other American passenger airline.[4] It is the only U.S. combination carrier (passenger and cargo service) operating dedicated Boeing 747 freighters. The airline, along with its then-parent company, Northwest Airlines ...
