History
This very brief history of the growth of the airline industry provides some
needed perspective.
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/airline-history.html
These pages supply background information on Northwest Airlines. Please click
on the links for each decade.
http://www.nwa.com/corpinfo/upclose/
This link provides a basic understanding of what airline deregulation actually
is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_deregulation
Economist Andrew Kleit presents an interesting argument on how deregulation
benefited the United States.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv14n3/reg14n3-kleit.html
Bankruptcy
Here is a brief introduction of bankruptcy in the United States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_in_the_United_States
This is a primer on federal bankruptcy law, published by the U.S. courts'
bankruptcy division (72 pages). It provides more details.
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/09/15_newsroom_docs/bankbasics.pdf
Usually, airlines file for bankruptcy court protection under Chapter 11.
This site gives an outline of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_11
Northwest files for bankruptcy on September 14, 2005. It has ripple effects
that impact its employees, the state of Minnesota and the region's economy.
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/09/14_baxtera_nwa/
This file reveals the influence of high energy prices on airlines.
http://www.airlines.org/files/Airlines_Fuel.pdf
Strike
Background on Northwest and Strike
http://www.nwa.com/features/laborqa/
(Browse this page to get a sense of NWA’s
position.)
http://www.amfanatl.org/Pages/15_Strike_Info/Strike_Info.html (Again,
browse this page to get a sense of AMFA’s point of view).
How it happened
Potential for long strike emerges.pdf
The fate of 4,400 jobs, and perhaps the financial future
of Northwest Airlines, is on the line.pdf
This is an overview of safety issues that have surfaced since the strike began
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1778/5646290.html
September's on-time data has not yet been released by the Bureau of Transportation
Statistics
Anecdotal evidence of NWA's efficiency can be found here. It isn't necessary
to
read
the whole thing.
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/nwa/