NORTHWEST AIRLINES STATEMENT ON TENTATIVE AGREEMENT WITH AMFA

Northwest Airlines Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson and President Doug Steenland issued the following statement after reaching a tentative agreement with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) at the conclusion of weekend talks:

“Northwest Airlines today has signed a tentative agreement with AMFA, the union which represents our 9,795 mechanics, cleaners and custodians.

“The agreement will be submitted to the AMFA membership for ratification. Information on the specific terms of the tentative agreement will be provided by AMFA to its membership.”

Anderson and Steenland acknowledged the valuable contribution of AMFA members to Northwest Airlines and cited the tentative agreement as fair and equitable to its AMFA-represented employees. They also noted that the agreement would enable the airline to continue growing in an extremely competitive marketplace.

“When Doug Steenland and I assumed leadership of Northwest in February we identified several important priorities, including improving relationships with our employees and our customers,” said Anderson. “We believe this tentative agreement with AMFA positively advances those goals.”

“Northwest Airlines will operate a full schedule and our customers can make their travel plans with Northwest in confidence during this period. We appreciate the support, understanding and confidence of our customers,” noted the executives, who pledged to continue to keep their customers informed and to provide them with the best service to meet their travel and shipping needs.

With annual revenues in excess of $11 billion and approximately 55,000 employees worldwide, Northwest Airlines is the world’s fourth largest airline with hubs at Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Tokyo and Amsterdam and more than 2,700 daily departures. With its travel partners, Northwest serves more than 785 cities in 120 countries on six continents. Based on statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Northwest was the most on-time U.S. airline among the seven largest network carriers for the period 1990-2000.