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Northwest Alters NYC Plans

Ted Reed

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Northwest(NWA Quote) has decided against flying between New York's LaGuardia Airport and Dallas.

The carrier had announced the flight in June, apparently to retaliate after Dallas-based American, a unit of AMR (AMR Quote), said it would fly between LaGuardia and Northwest's hub in Minneapolis. Those flights begin Sept. 5.

The change does not appear to represent a softening in Northwest's commitment to protect its hubs against incursions. Now, instead of operating three daily Dallas flights, it will use the LaGuardia slots to operate daily flights on three American Eagle routes, starting Nov. 4.

The new destinations are Des Moines, Iowa; Flint, Mich.; and Madison, Wis. They will be served with 50-seat regional jets flown by Pinnacle(PNCL Quote), operating as Northwest Airlink.

American Eagle serves Des Moines and Madison from LaGuardia and will go to Flint starting Nov. 4.

"Because LaGuardia is slot-controlled, we sometimes have to make hard choices," said Northwest spokesman Darren Shannon. "We decided that the slots would be best utilized in our key heartland markets."