Starting in October, Northwest Airlines plans to reduce the number of seats flying into North Dakota cities and replace some DC-9s with smaller regional passenger airline jets, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Tuesday.
Dorgan was at a meeting in Bismarck Tuesday with city and airport officials there and with representatives from Northwest.
Northwest said it plans to shrink its overall schedule by 10 percent, Dorgan said.
The U.S. senator said Northwest officials said they would reduce the number of seats to the Bismarck area along by 100 seats a day in addition to removing some DC-9s from their Bismarck schedule.
Dorgan said he is scheduling additional meetings with airport and city leaders from Grand Forks, Minot and Fargo to talk about the potential impact on their airline services.
Dorgan also said he is setting up a meeting in Minneapolis between Northwest's chief executive officer and city officials from North Dakota's four major cities.
"Northwest Airlines is the dominant air carrier in North Dakota," Dorgan said in a news release, "and in order for our communities to grow and have the airlines seats necessary to meet our needs, we need to have a commitment from Northwest that it will provide sufficient service and good equipment in the months and years ahead."
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
