US: Northwest Airlines cancels flights amid pilot shortage

As of 10:00 pm EST, 133 Northwest flights had been cancelled on Thursday, and many more were delayed, including 132 for over 45 minutes, according to Flightstats.com. On Wednesday, 241 flights (or 16 percent of scheduled flights) were canceled and 228 delayed for over 45 minutes. Problems at Northwest have been escalating, with total cancellations exceeding 1,000 flights during the past week.

Northwest is the fifth-largest airline carrier in the US, with major hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis, and Memphis, Tennessee. It emerged from bankruptcy proceedings at the end of May, after cutting $1.4 billion in annual costs—mainly by slashing jobs, wages and benefits.

The principal cause of the cancellations appears to be a shortage of pilots. Under the contract ratified last year, pilots cannot be required to log more than 90 flight hours a month, an increase of 10 hours over the previous contract. Federal regulations place the limit for pilots in the US at 100 flight hours per month.

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