Northwest Pilots’ Strike Creates Travel Disruptions

Travelers grounded by the Northwest Airlines pilots’ strike waited hours for alternative flights, rushed to rent cars or went hundreds of miles out of their way Saturday to get where they wanted to go.

Both the airline and the pilots’ union said they were willing to resume negotiations that broke off shortly before the 6,200 pilots struck, but there was no indication when that would happen.

“I’m not going to play games about who’s going to call who, but clearly these guys walked out,” Northwest spokesman Jon Austin said. “They have to walk back in.”

“It kind of takes two to dance,” said Paul Omodt, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Assn.

Northwest canceled all of its 1,700 daily flights through Tuesday, Austin said. International flights from Europe also were canceled for Wednesday.

Airports were quiet at the three cities where Northwest controls more than three-quarters of the air traffic: Minneapolis, Detroit and Memphis, Tenn.

At Los Angeles International Airport, a long line of would-be passengers snaked in front of the Northwest ticket counter, while others sat on suitcases and luggage racks.

Extra staff had been brought in to “ease and calm” passengers, said Joe Conlon, customer service manager. And throughout the morning, the airline offered free coffee, juice and newspapers.

But those efforts did nothing to reduce the wait.

“We’ve been at this ticket counter an hour and a half,” said Barbara Counsel, who was trying to secure new flights for two Japanese exchange students, Mayumi Takata, 21, and Rie Matsumoto, 19. The two had been scheduled to return Saturday to Osaka and Tokyo.

Ninety-seven Northwest planes, about a quarter of its fleet, were parked at the airline’s home base at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Northwest is the nation’s sixth-largest airline in terms of passengers and its fourth-largest in terms of revenue. It carries nearly 150,000 passengers a day and 2.9 million pounds of cargo on 1,700 flights in North America, Europe, Asia and India. Cargo service had been halted Thursday.

Before the strike started, Northwest canceled 400 flights for Friday and Saturday, giving many passengers time to rearrange their plans.

Only 15,000 passengers traveled through Minneapolis on Saturday, down from the usual 80,000, said Jeff Hamiel, executive director of the Metropolitan Airports Commission.