Severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings issued for Twin Cities metro area

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

 (AP) - Northwest Airlines Corp. filed its bankruptcy
reorganization plan on Friday, another step toward its planned
emergence from Chapter 11 protection in the second quarter of this
year.

      The plan did not address perhaps the largest question
surrounding Northwest right now: Whether it will merge with another
airline. Northwest has hired a merger advisory firm, although it
has not commented publicly on its plans.

      The 66-page plan also didn't include cited several schedules to
be filed later, including management compensation. Northwest's
bankruptcy judge in New York extended until Feb. 15 its time to
file disclosures related to the plan.

      Northwest said its shares, which had continued to trade over the
counter, would be canceled once it emerges. It said its unsecured
creditors would not be paid in full.

      Northwest, the nation's fifth-largest carrier, had filed for
Chapter 11 protection on Sept. 14, 2005, and had until Tuesday to
file its own reorganization plan. After that, other parties such as
creditors could have proposed their own reorganization plan.

      Northwest Chief Executive Doug Steenland said Northwest has cut
$2.4 billion in annual costs and is on track to report a pre-tax
profit for 2006.

      More than half of those cost savings came from employee pay cuts
and less-restrictive work rules.

      Steenland said that will pay off in the long run.

      "For our employees, a healthy Northwest will ensure a future of
job security, pension and retirement benefits, profit-sharing
payments and access to a valuable claim" in the bankruptcy estate,
he said, in a news release issued alongside the reorganization
plan.

      Union workers who agreed to pay cuts got unsecured claims in
Northwest's bankruptcy, and pilots have already sold some of their
claims for cash. 

Flight attendants have not received an agreed-upon
claim because they never approved a new negotiated contract.
Instead, they're working under a contract Northwest imposed, with a
judge's permission. 

Northwest said on Friday that flight attendants
could get a claim, too, if they ratify a new contract.

Gallery

WSJ: Northwest talking deal with Delta

Northwest Airlines reaches deal to buy Mesaba, whose parent company has yet to sign on

Twin Cities airport mulls aid deal for Northwest Airlines

Business and Economic News

The plan did not address perhaps the largest question surrounding Northwest right now: Whether it will merge with another airline.

Northwest Airlines files bankruptcy reorganization plan

Go Deeper.

Like this?