LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Northwest Airlines: Routes
built 804 days ago
In the attempt to establish northern routes to Asia, Northwest pilots made expeditions to Alaska and across the Aleutian Islands. The northern route had been passed up by Pan Am, which was unable to win landing rights in the Soviet maritime provinces and Japan. Instead, Pan Am decided to open a route to the Philippines and China, via Hawaii and Guam. Pan Am crossed the ocean first, but Northwest held the promise of a faster route.
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"Northwest said, 'Enough of this, we'll handle it now,'" said airline consultant Michael Boyd. "This was brought on by fuel. They don't have any structure problems. Its route system is golden, it's bulletproof."
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In other words, Northwest is shamelessly milking these routes for every last penny of trans-Pacific revenue, customer comfort be damned. Profiteering is the right of all American airlines, and lord knows they do it with impunity.
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