About 1,500 former Northwest Airline Corp. employees will lose their
jobs following a downsizing at the carrier's Minnesota headquarters by
new owner Delta Air Lines Inc. Atlanta-based Delta acquired Northwest
for $2.6 billion in October, causing concern in the Twin Cities that
there could be significant job losses and service cuts at Northwest's
home airport, run by the Metropolitan Airport Commission. Northwest
employs about 11,500 people in Minnesota.
Delta on Monday
reached a tentative agreement with the MAC that preserved thousands of
jobs and created Delta Headquarters North in Minnesota. The MAC did
have some leverage in the negotiation. As the
Atlanta Business Chronicle reported,
the MAC threatened to call for accelerated repayment of $245 million in
bonds if Delta moved the headquarters to Atlanta, something it claimed
would have violated terms of its original loan agreement with Northwest.
The latest news follows an announcement by Delta in early December that it would
cut capacity by 8% in 2009, a move that could result in further job cuts.
- Suzanne Stevens
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