The Air Line Pilots Association finally appears ready to play ball with Northwest Airlines as the Minneapolis-based company pushes for a new deal to allow 70-seat jets to fly within the Northwest Airlink regional network. But, as usual, ALPA has its own ideas about where those airplanes fit within the system and has proposed a separate division that would look conspicuously like US Airways’ MidAtlantic unit. Of course, ALPA’s plan would bar regional affiliates Pinnacle and Mesaba Airlines from expanding into the 70-seat jet arena with Northwest, leaving those affiliates with no choice but to search outside the Northwest network, potentially sending competitive ripples through the regional marketplace.
Memphis-based Pinnacle, which laid the foundation for an eventual venture outside the Northwest system when it launched an IPO early in 2002, has become the subject of talk surrounding a new deal with existing Northwest code-share partner Continental Airlines. Although Continental’s scope clause does not allow regional affiliates to fly jets that hold more than 59 passenger seats on routes involving a Continental hub (Houston, Cleveland and Newark), it does allow 60- to 80-seat jets between a Continental hub and a Northwest Airlines hub as long as those carriers’ marketing agreement stays in effect.
