Previous Story
Flat tire delays Northwest flight
|
Posted on Aug 25 2004
The departure of Northwest Airlines passengers stranded during the onslaught of Supertyphoon Chaba was again held off Tuesday evening after the aircraft experienced a mechanical problem.
Northwest Airlines-Saipan general manager Barbara Yamada said the Japan-bound service was supposed to leave at 8pm Tuesday, to fly out 320 passengers, including those stranded on Saipan. But the flight did not push through as scheduled due to a flat tire.
Yamada said the passengers were informed of the possible delay as soon as the problem was found Tuesday morning. The carrier’s Saipan office did not have the necessary equipment to fix the tire, and had to get the materials from Narita, Tokyo.
The flight finally took off at 7am yesterday.
“Our operations are now back to normal,” Yamada said. “We appreciate the understanding of our passengers. They knew that the typhoon was an act of God. As for the mechanical problem, they understood that we had to delay the flight for their safety.”
Northwest Airlines operates daily flights between Saipan and Nagoya, with departure time at 9am. The carrier also provides twice-daily flights between Saipan and Tokyo, with departures at 8:55am and 5pm.
Further, the airline has a code-share agreement with the Pacific Island Aviation for connecting flights between Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Guam.
On Tuesday, Northwest Airlines announced the introduction of more self-service check-in options for travelers at Guam International Airport and Saipan International Airport with the recent addition of its self-service check-in kiosks.
Northwest is the first airline to offer travelers on Guam and Saipan the option of using self-service check-in kiosks, and Guam and Saipan are the first markets outside of Japan to receive kiosks-part of a deployment of more of its customer service technology throughout the airline’s 15-city Asia-Pacific network.
