Northwest Airlines, Inc. (NWA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, Inc., is a major US airline headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota,\near Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (Minnesota / USA). Northwest has three major hubs in the United States: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, and Memphis International Airport. Northwest also operates flights from its Asian hub at Tokyo Narita International Airport (Japan). Transatlantic flights are operated from its European hub at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in cooperation with its partner airline KLM. As of October 2009, the Northwest operations control center was relocated to Delta's headquarters in Atlanta.As of 2006, Northwest was the world's sixth largest airline in terms of domestic and international scheduled passenger miles flown and the U.S.'s sixth largest airline in terms of domestic passenger miles flown. In addition to operating one of the largest domestic route networks in the U.S., Northwest carries more passengers across the Pacific Ocean (5.1 million in 2004) than any other U.S. carrier, and carries more domestic air cargo than any other American passenger airline.[6] It is the only U.S. combination carrier (passenger and cargo service) operating dedicated Boeing 747 freighters. The airline, along with its then-parent company, Northwest Airlines Corporation and subsidiaries, operated under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection which, in the United States, allows continued operation during the reorganization effort, not cessation of flights as in the case in some countries. Northwest emerged from bankruptcy protection on May 31, 2007.
On April 14, 2008, Northwest announced it would become known as Delta Air Lines after its merger with Delta Air Lines closed on October 29, 2008. This made Delta the largest airline in the world. Northwest will, however, continue to operate as an independent carrier (as a Delta Air Lines subsidiary) for several months until the operating certificates and other factors are combined.
In February 2009, the airline began consolidating gates and ticket counters at airports served simultaneously by both Delta and Northwest. The re-branding will include the changing of "Northwest" signs to "Delta" signs. The integration is expected to continue throughout this year and into early 2010. The airline's hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Memphis were re-branded as of March 31, 2009. The Tokyo hub was re-branded on August 24, 2009. The integration of both carriers is planned to be completed by February 2010.
