Northwest adds flights to four Midwest cities

Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005 | 11:03 a.m.

Northwest Airlines, seeking to bolster its dominance in the Midwest market, has announced nonstop round-trips between Las Vegas and four cities.

The Minneapolis-based carrier -- fifth busiest in the nation and No. 7 at McCarran International Airport -- will add flights between Las Vegas and Des Moines, Iowa; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Grand Rapids, Mich., and Madison, Wis., beginning Oct. 30.

In Des Moines, Sioux Falls and Madison, Northwest will compete with Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, which specializes in flights between Las Vegas and several secondary airports. Flights to Grand Rapids represent a new market for Las Vegas and would become the 115th city served nonstop from the local airport.

The Grand Rapids and Madison flights will operate daily except Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday; the Des Moines flights will operate daily except Monday, Tuesday and Friday and the Sioux Falls flights will run twice a week, Monday and Friday.

Northwest will use twin-engine Airbus A319 jets on the route with 16 first-class seats and 108 in the coach cabin.

Northwest primarily links its national route map with flights through hub airports in Minneapolis, Detroit and Memphis, Tenn. Globally, the company has 1,600 daily departures to more than 900 cities on six continents, using Tokyo and Amsterdam as its primary international gateways.

In addition to flights to hub cities, Northwest offers flights to and from Milwaukee and Indianapolis and Las Vegas.

In Las Vegas, the airline has 15 daily flights to six destinations, offering 3.2 percent of the seats to and from the market. Through June, Northwest served 893,400 passengers in Las Vegas, a 9.8 percent increase over the previous year.

Last month, the airline announced it would begin nonstop flights between Flint, Mich., and Las Vegas beginning Aug. 20.

Like several other airlines serving Las Vegas, Northwest has a tour-packaging subsidiary that books hotel rooms, rental cars and golf, spa and concert experiences for its customers. Northwest's is NWA WorldVacations, which has package agreements with 35 companies in Las Vegas.

An aviation expert who has a front-row seat for Northwest's operations said today that the airline is solidifying its grass roots with its moves in Las Vegas.

Minneapolis-based Terry Trippler of cheapseats.com said that while it's a little unusual for Northwest to add flights linking non-hub cities, the airline is attempting to solidify its customer base in its midwestern "heartland" region.

"They're trying to capture as much of the Midwest market as possible from the Dakotas to Pennsylvania," Trippler said. "Don't be surprised if you see flights to Fargo (N.D.) and LaCrosse (Wis.)."

Trippler said the airline has found success by solidifying its presence in Milwaukee and Indianapolis. The airline also has a daily flight between Los Angeles and Las Vegas to accommodate connecting international travelers from Asia.

Northwest broke new ground for Las Vegas in 1998 when it offered the first nonstop flights between Las Vegas and Asia with direct service to and from Tokyo. The airline discontinued flights in 2001 when Japan Airlines began flying the route.