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Northwest Airlines is an airline headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota. With three major hubs in the United States: Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (where it accounts for more than 70% of passenger traffic), Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and Memphis International Airport. Northwest also operates flights to East Asia from Narita International Airport near Tokyo, as well as flights to India from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
Northwest Airlines' regional flights are operated under two airlines, which operate under the name Northwest Airlink. In September 2004, Northwest joined the SkyTeam Alliance along with its long-time partners, KLM and Continental Airlines. (Northwest was formerly part of the Wings Alliance ). It codeshares with SNCF French Rail to destinations in France, and Thalys International to destinations in BelgiumFor alternate meanings, see Belgium (disambiguation). Belgian redirects here. For the horse breed commonly used as a draft horse, see Belgian. The Kingdom of Belgium ( Dutch: Belgi French: Belgique German: Belgien is a country in Western Europe, bordered.
Northwest Airlines uses the IATA designator code NW and the ICAOThe International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO , an agency of the United Nations, develops the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly code NWA. Its frequent flyer programA Frequent Flyer Program is a service offered by many airlines to reward customer loyalty. Typically, airline customers enrolled in the program accrue points corresponding to the distance flown on that airline. Accrued points (also known as frequent flyer is called WorldPerks .
In 1926Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 See also 1926 in aviation 1926 in film 1926 in literature 1926 in mu, Northwest Airways began flying air mail from Minneapolis to Chicago using two biplanes. The airline's operations were expanded to smaller cities in the region by the end of the decade. In 1933Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s Years: 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 See also 1933 in aviation 1933 in film 1933 in literature 1933 in mu, Northwest was designated to fly the Northern Transcontinental Route from New York City to Seattle, Washington: it adopted the name Northwest Airlines the following year.
During World War II, NWA flew military equipment and personnel from the continental United States to Alaska. This experience led the government to designate Northwest as the United States' main North Pacific carrier following the war. In 1947, NWA became the first U.S. airline to fly to Japan, using Boeing 377 Stratocruisers from Seattle (direct) and Chicago (via Anchorage). From Tokyo, Northwest flights continued to Shanghai, Manila, and Hong Kong. ( Taipei replaced Shanghai after the revolution of 1949.) With its new routes, the airline rebranded itself as Northwest Orient Airlines.
After airline deregulation, Northwest began direct flights to other Asian cities, and gradually strengthened its presence in the southern United States. It also began flying to Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia. In 1985, Northwest purchased Republic Airlines and adopted its three-hub network centered around Minneapolis, Detroit, and Memphis. Northwest returned to its original name with the merger.
In 1993, Northwest entered its cooperative agreement with KLM, which was the largest airline partnership ever conceived at the time. Northwest gradually pulled out of its minor European destinations and focused its attention on the domestic and Asian markets once more.
Currently, Northwest has extensive operations out of Tokyo. They fly from Tokyo to 15 cities in Asia including Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore. In October, they began to fly from Detroit to Guangzhou via Tokyo.
The airline carries the undesirable distinction of having employed the first commercial pilots to ever be convicted of flying while drunk. In 1990, three crew members were intoxicated when they flew their Boeing 727 airliner from Fargo, North Dakota to MSP airport in the Twin Cities. Another incident occurred in January 2001 when a pilot flew a DC-10 from San Antonio, Texas to MSP. Upon landing, he had a 0.056% blood alcohol content level, above the Federal Aviation Administration limit. He was soon fired.
Three Northwest aircraft were targeted in the failed Operation Bojinka terrorist plot of 1995. Also related to terrorism, just before the September 11, 2001 attacks, Zacarias Moussaoui (who was later labeled as a possible " 20th hijacker" by the news media) was arrested after attempting to use a flight simulator operated by Northwest.