Northwest Airlines has announced its re-accommodation policy for passengers in the event Mesaba Airlines pilots go on strike tonight.
Passengers holding tickets for Mesaba-operated flights for travel between Jan. 9-17 can re-book their flights to fly between Jan. 7 and Feb. 9 on Northwest Airlines or Pinnacle Airlines.
No change fees will be charged, but the class of seat originally purchased must be available for rebooking to occur.
For passengers whose point of departure is from an airport served exclusively by Mesaba, such as International Falls, they must drive to the nearest hub (either Duluth or Minneapolis) and catch their flight from there.
Northwest will not reimburse passengers for the portion of travel between the Falls airport and the nearest hub.
Pilots for Mesaba Airlines—a carrier for Northwest—are demanding a salary hike, saying they are paid as much as 30 percent less than pilots at comparable regional airlines.
The latest round of contract talks began Monday in Minneapolis. The strike deadline is 11:01 p.m.
tonight.
Mesaba runs about 600 flights a day, and is the exclusive carrier for some 20 community airports, including International Falls.
The airline averages three flights a day out of the Falls in the winter and seven a day in the summer.
Some 20,000 passengers use the airport every year, about 25 percent of whom are Canadian.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
