Bankrupt Northwest Airlines has turned the financial screws on its existing Airlink partners by asking for bids from several regional airlines to fly RJs carrying up to 76 passenger seats. On December 9 Pinnacle Airlines received one such RFP, within which Northwest specified a complement of airplanes “comparable to the number of aircraft currently comprising Pinnacle’s fleet,” according to the Memphis-based regional carrier, which now flies 124 Bombardier CRJs.
On November 29 a U.S. bankruptcy court judge allowed Northwest to reject the leases of 15 grounded CRJs previously flown by Pinnacle. Northwest stopped reimbursing Pinnacle for fixed costs associated with those airplanes on December 1.