Planning Ahead

Although we are all dealing with the joys of winter, part of our team is well into the spring and summer planning process. As we look ahead there is some very good news on the scheduling side of the business. Our DTW WorldGateway is going back into the growth mode with additional flights over last year and new international services. This May we will be operating 285 NW mainline flights and 215 Airlink departures, which is up year over year. Also, we will start flying DTW–DUS and DTW–BRU with our 757s and adding another DTW–FRA flight this summer.

We are evaluating our Northwest staffing requirements, but the good news is for the first time in a very long time we could be hiring CSA's. Not sure yet how many CSAs have transfers into DTW, but the numbers look like we will be adding 45 to 50 part time CSA's to current levels.

I know CSA's have formed a bid committee to assist Andy in building a great spring/summer bid that meets the needs of our customers and being more bid friendly for employees than we have seen in the past.

The ESE spring/summer plan is a little more complicated with the pull down of our deice operation. Joe Conlon and Hussein Berry are working on several options to smooth the transitions and I know once we have a clear picture, Joe will communicate the plan.

On another topic, I want to personally thank everyone in LSO for working endless hours in order to expedite getting our customers and their luggage reunited this past week. This last storm really drove a large volume of rerouting customers and their luggage. Our LSO team is still working 24 hours a day as a result, again Thank You.

Well that’s all for now,

Mark

Ground Equipment & Blog Comments

Hello everyone,

It’s Wednesday, Feb 21st and I have two topics of conversation for today...

First, I get a lot of questions about ground equipment repair and at times, it seems we do not have enough ground equipment. No question, just like our aircraft, it is very important to have enough equipment in service to do your job. Mark Zimmerman, our Manager of Ground Equipment Repair, tracks the amount of equipment we have out of service each day and spends long hours working with his team to ensure you have enough equipment to service our aircraft and customers. One tool we use is a summary report that Mark sends out each morning to the HCC and department leaders. I also receive a copy each morning in my e mail and monitor the levels of equipment in and out of service. Just like our aircraft, we have allocation (spares) equipment on hand realizing that there will always be equipment out for repair or for preventive maintenance. Example is tugs; we have a total of 313 tugs in DTW to support all of our ground operating departments. In that number we have 15 spares to cover repairs and maintenance, so as long as we have no more then 15 tugs out of service we should be ok to run our operation. Today we have 16 tugs out of service so we are short 1 operational tug. I know sometimes it seems like we have a lot more than that, which could be driven by tugs being tagged out of service but not reported to Ground Equipment Repair. So it is important that when we tag a piece of equipment out of service, we contact Mark's team at 247-2693 and advise them of equipment number and location. Also, there are times that we find it is just a matter of the equipment needing fuel. It would be very helpful to all if we each make sure to fuel all of our ground equipment during each shift. Be assured, Mark's team is working hard to keep the right levels of ground equipment in service so you have the tools to do your job and we do use overtime when the numbers increase to a concerning level. Also, NW realizes that some of our equipment needs replacement sooner then later. We are funded to start replacing ground equipment in 2007, but honestly, it will be a slow process for the first year or so. If you still have concerns or suggestions in this matter, contact Joe Conlon or Mark Zimmerman directly for clarification.

Second topic is how to post comments on my Blog. I met with our EIT Communications team today and they told me there was questions on how to post comments and how do I respond back……………First of all, I encourage you to feel free to send me comments on any information or topics you want me to post on.
Here is the process:
Under each of my posted blog topics is the word comments, click on that and go to the Box -Leave Your Comments. Then you can click on anonymous and send your comment. What happens then is the comment is put in my Blog account for me to preview and post your comment to the blog site. I can then answer your comment in my Blog, if needed. If you would like a direct response, you would have to leave a contact email or number in your post. I will check my blog account regularly to see if there are any comments waiting to be posted.

Well it’s been another tough day for all with the fog. I really was hoping this would be a great operating week for you and our customers but Mother Nature would not give us a break. Thanks again for doing a good job and sorry about the freeze. I wish there was a better way of handling unplanned volume and work.

Mark

Winter Wonderland

The long awaited first big storm finally hit the DTW hub and the northeast causing a full deice operation and many cancelled flights. During the pm shift on Tuesday and all day Wednesday we cancelled 80 departing main line flights and deiced well over 90% of all departures.

Our ESE deice team did a great job keeping our fleet moving and customers safe. Total departures over the 48 hour period were 455 with only 30 flights experiencing long taxi out times, which were driven more by runway and field conditions. Many ESEs spent long hours in deice trucks and on tug plows keeping the DTW Hub operating, many thanks to all. A special thanks to Paul Gildersleeve who took Crystal Knotek, our Senior Vice President, up in a deice bucket and showed her first hand how we deice international wide body aircraft. I can tell you, Crystal was very impressed. Also during this period our aircraft and ground equipment mechanics did a great job working on equipment and keeping the fleet flying, many thanks.

Inside the terminal our customer service team handled thousands of customers who were unable to get to the northeast. Many of the customers who could not get out of DTW on Tuesday night were waiting in line early Wednesday morning and some spent most of Wednesday with us. Although frustrated with the weather, I spoke to several customers who appreciated the service they received by our employees.

I guess the moment I will always remember from this week was in the peak of a full winter operation, we watched one our own, Cheri LeBlanc get married at the water feature. I know this was a special moment for Cheri and all of us who were there to witness this special event.

In closing, thanks to all for stepping up and working hard through a difficult operation.

Mark

Deep Freeze

Hello everyone and welcome to winter. I guess we are paying for a mild December as temps have fallen well below the norm and is making our live’s a lot more challenging. I want to thank you all for continuing to do a great job during very difficult working conditions and dealing with the personal issues of having schools closed.

Although the temps have hit below the zero mark, our outside employees have done a commendable job getting flights turned and moving our customer’s luggage and cargo. The weather has really impacted our hubs arrival rate, but you have been able to make up time and keep our departures within 15 minutes at 70%, great job.

Also a special thanks to our Facilities team, led by Dennis Farmer, who have worked endless hours fixing broken pipes and failed ready room heaters. You know its cold when our CSA's are checking in customers with winter jackets and gloves on. Also many thanks to our Skycaps for continuing to check in customers at the curb and ESE' for coming up with creative ways to keep our ground equipment in service.

Keep warm, be safe and hope for an early spring.

Regards,

Mark

Habitat for Humanity

Thanks for popping in on my Blog. I will continue to use my Blog as an opportunity to share information and communicate with you. There are a lot of exciting things happening under our Employee Involvement Teams (EITs) and many of you have gotten involved with the process. This website is one small example of the hard work of our Communications EIT.

Another EIT group that has been doing great work is our Community Involvement EIT. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing employees getting together and giving back to our community and making DTW a better place to live and work. The more Northwest and its employees get involved with community opportunities the more our customers will truly see us as DTW's airline and hopefully choose to fly us all of the time.

The excitement is not only local. After our great handling of the Superbowl and other recent local events, our senior leadership team has devoted special funding to allow you and I to support local DTW community needs and events. One community involvement opportunity that Northwest has approved is our sponsorship for a Detroit Habitat for Humanity House Build. That’s right, this spring you and I are going to travel to East Detroit and build a home for a deserving family. Northwest has donated the construction cost and you and I will provide the labor. More to come on this in the next several weeks.

Well, that’s my blog post for Friday 2/2/07. Its going to be a cold one this weekend so stay warm and thanks for all of your hard work.

Mark