Business Spotlight: Northwest Airlink to begin service to Detroit

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

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

|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|

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

|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|

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

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

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

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

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.