Business Spotlight: Northwest Airlink to begin service to Detroit

|tab|

|ret|The Springfield-Branson Regional Airport is expanding now, and Northwest Airlink is growing right along with it.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Effective May 19, Northwest Airlink will add weekend, nonstop jet service from Springfield to Detroit, Mich.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret||quot|We're going to start out by offering weekend service and see where it goes from there,|quot| said Phil Reed, vice president of marketing for Northwest Airlink. |quot|To date, the Springfield market has been very responsive to the enhancements we've made in service.|quot|

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Sherry Wallace, director of marketing and communications for the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport, agrees. According to Wallace, Northwest Airlink is the fastest growing airline serving the airport.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Last year, Northwest Airlink served more than 85,000 travelers in the Springfield area, and the airline experienced double-digit growth.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Current projections indicate Northwest Airlink's passenger service in Springfield will increase by another 300 percent during the next five years.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Northwest Airlink is operated by Express Airlines I of Memphis, Tenn. Express Airlines I began offering regional airline passenger service through a code-sharing agreement with Republic Airlines in 1985.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|In 1986, Northwest Airlines acquired Republic Airlines. At the time, Northwest Airlines had its own network of regional airlines, which was operating as Northwest Airlink, and it incorporated Express I into its existing network.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Express Airlines I then began doing business in both the Memphis and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., areas.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|In 1997, Northwest Airlines elected to change the structure of Express Airlines I, which, until then, had been privately held. As of April 1, 1997, Express Airlines I became a fully-owned subsidiary of Northwest Airlines and began doing business as Northwest Airlink.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|The company moved into the jet age May 7, 1999, when it announced it would begin operating at least 42 Canadair regional jets.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|In July 2000, Northwest Airlink replaced the 33-seat Saab 340 turboprop planes that provided service to and from the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport with the regional jets, which seat 50 passengers.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|According to Wallace, providing jet service has gone a long way toward increasing Northwest Airlink's business at the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret||quot|Passengers prefer jets to turboprop planes,|quot| Wallace said. |quot|Jets are bigger, faster and quieter. It takes an hour and 20 minutes to fly from Springfield to Memphis on a turboprop plane. On a jet, that same trip will take an hour.|quot|

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Northwest Airlink's decision to route many of its flights through the Memphis International Airport also has helped increase demand.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Once in Memphis, Springfield passengers can catch connecting flights to 83 cities.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Passengers flying into Memphis also rarely experience weather-related delays, even in the winter.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Currently, Northwest Airlink operates four daily flights from Springfield to Memphis, with service to Detroit being added on May 19.

|ret|

|ret||tab|

|ret|Passengers who fly on Northwest Airlink accumulate frequent flyer miles in their Northwest Airlines' WorldPerks account. These miles can be redeemed for travel on Northwest Airlines or Northwest Airlink. [[In-content Ad]]