Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC
Northwest Airlines has concluded a deal to order as many as 60 Airbus A330s, along with additional A319s, Boeing 757s and 747 aircraft, clearing the way for the carrier to turn its attention to the even larger requirement to replace its ageing fleet of McDonnell Douglas DC-9 narrowbody jets.
Northwest was an original launch customer for the A330 in 1987, and Airbus has held the airline's firm order for 16 A330s on its books for the last 13 years. The European company has grabbed the lion's share of the new equipment purchase with a firm order for 24 A330-300s, replacing the original 16 aircraft deal, and the conversion of six A319 options. The carrier is also understood to have placed options for eight more A330s and secured purchase rights on another 28 aircraft, enough to completely replace its existingDC-10 fleet and provide for growth.
Delivery of the 302-seat A330s will start in May 2003 with the last of the firm orders being completed in 2006. The aircraft will initially replace Northwest's 22 DC-10-30s used on transatlantic routes, which in turn will be used to supplant its 21 older DC-10-40s employed on domestic services. The airline says it plans to eventually phase out all of the 281/290-seat trijets.
The A330s will be complemented on thinner domestic routes, such as from Memphis and Detroit to Los Angeles, by the new stretched 757-300. Northwest has ordered 20 of the 223-seat aircraft for delivery from early 2002, superseding an earlier unfulfilled 757-200 order. Two jets are still subject to confirmation, while it has the right to switch some of the new order back to 757-200s, of which 48 are now in service and another five due for delivery this year.
Northwest has also ordered another two 747-400s for delivery in 2002. It now operates a 747 fleet of 47 aircraft including 14 -400s. The six additional A319s will boost the carrier's Airbus narrowbody fleet to 70 A320s and 74 A319s by 2002. The new orders also represent a significant win for Pratt & Whitney, which will power all the new aircraft apart from the CFM56-equipped A319s. The deal provides a launch order for the 40,000lb-thrust (178kN) PW2040 engine on the 757-200s, while the A330s and 747-400s will be powered by the PW4168A and PW4056 engines respectively.
Attention now turns to finding a replacement for Northwest's large and varied collection of 172DC-9s. "This is something we're looking at. The DC-9s still have a lot of cycles left, but with the rise of fuel prices we're looking for a more efficient aircraft and this is the next focus of aircraft fleet planning," says the carrier. Its mix of different sized DC-9s highlights the challenge of finding a single replacement for its ten 78-seat DC-9-10s, 115 100-seat -30s, 12 110-seat -40s and 10 125-seat-50s.
Source: Flight International
