Northwest Airlines, in an attempt to restore reliable flight operations, on Wednesday reached a tentative agreement with its pilots union to address pilot staffing problems and announced that it will pay bonuses to employees who have perfect attendance through Labor Day. Also CEO Doug Steenland took responsibility for the airline's poor operational performance this summer and said that management had underestimated the negative effects that some aspects of its 2006 labor contracts would have on employees. The carrier was forced to cancel several hundred flights in late June and again in late July because it did not have enough pilots to fly its full schedule.
See "Northwest, pilots reach deal on staffing", Liz Fedor, Minneapolis Star Tribune, August 1, 2007