Northwest Airlines has announced that its entire trans-Atlantic flight schedule is now operated with the modern and comfortable Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft.“The deployment of the A330 across our entire trans-Atlantic schedule ushers in a new era of passenger comfort and in-flight service,” said Phil Haan, executive vice president of international, alliances and information technology and chairman of NWA Cargo. “From seat comfort to in-flight entertainment, our A330s provide customers with a travel experience unmatched by any other U.S. airline and many of our international competitors.”

Yesterday’s arrival of flight 55 from Amsterdam, which landed at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport at 6:46 p.m. Central time, marked the retirement of the DC10 from scheduled international service at Northwest Airlines.

Most of Northwest’s trans-Atlantic schedule was already operated with A330s, but in June of this year the airline announced it would accelerate the retirement of the remaining DC10 aircraft in its fleet as it continued to take deliveries of new A330s.

Northwest began taking delivery of new Airbus A330 aircraft in Aug. 2003 and currently has 22 aircraft in trans-Atlantic, trans-Pacific and intra-Asia service. Its A330 fleet includes 11 298-seat A330-300s, and 11 longer-range, 243-seat A330-200s.

With an average fleet age of two years, Northwest’s A330s are one of the youngest trans-Atlantic fleets in the airline industry. The airline has an additional 10 aircraft on order scheduled for delivery between now and the end of 2007.

While the airline’s trans-Atlantic wide-body fleet will continue to consist entirely of Airbus A330s, in May 2007, Northwest will begin service on select trans-Atlantic routes with a fleet of standard-body Boeing 757 aircraft, specially-modified for international service.
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