Northwest Airlines Expands E-Boarding Passes to Its Detroit WorldGateway Hub

Business Wire, Oct 29, 2008

EAGAN, Minn. -- Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA) announced today the expansion of its paperless boarding pass, effective October 29, 2008, to its Detroit WorldGateway hub. This comes after a successful test program in Indianapolis, Indiana. E-Boarding Passes allow customers to use their mobile phones and other handheld devices to clear security and board the airplane.

Northwest now offers E-Boarding Passes to customers traveling non-stop from Detroit to cities within the U.S. when checking in at nwa.com, using a PC or a handheld mobile device. Customers traveling non-stop from Indianapolis can continue to also use E-Boarding Passes.

"The growth of richer and more powerful mobile devices is facilitating the growth of electronic boarding passes and customer acceptance of this process," said Al Lenza, vice president distribution and e-commerce. "Expansion to Detroit is a big step in expanding E-Boarding Passes throughout the Northwest system and improving customer convenience."

The E-Boarding Pass incorporates passenger travel details on an industry standard mobile barcode that is sent directly to hundreds of handheld devices and mobile phones in the form of an e-mail, WAP push/link or MMS message.

Passengers choosing E-Boarding Pass no longer require a printer or kiosk to print their boarding pass. They can receive their E-Boarding Pass on the move and precede directly to airport security checkpoints.

For more information, log on to www.nwa.com/check-in/eboarding/.

Northwest Airlines is one of the world's largest airlines with hubs at Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Tokyo and Amsterdam. Northwest, with its regional partners, operates approximately 2,400 daily departures. Northwest is a member of SkyTeam, an airline alliance that offers customers one of the world's most extensive global networks. Northwest and its travel partners serve more than 1,000 cities in excess of 160 countries on six continents.