NWA To Cancel Two International Routes

Two of Northwest Airlines nonstop international routes from Detroit Airport will be dropped in 2009.

However, Delta Air Lines announced today a major expansion of international flights — 15 new routes, all of which are planned at airports other than Detroit.

Northwest’s daily flight from Detroit Airport to Paris will be discontinued in mid-January. Northwest’s nonstop flight from Detroit to Osaka, Japan, also will be dropped, as of Feb. 28. The airlines are still integrating their operations.

The Detroit plane to Paris often had as few as 30 to 40 people on it. Air France, a partner with Northwest, will continue to serve those customers.

Customers looking to travel to Osaka still will be able to do so by making a connection at Delta’s Tokyo Narita airport hub.
Delta still plans to add daily nonstop flights from Shanghai to Detroit beginning in March.

Air France is expected to increase its flights from Detroit to Paris to daily departures sometime in February, as well as make larger aircraft available for those flights. Last year at that time, Air France was flying to Paris from Detroit just three times a week.