“Management will make a decision by mid-year 2007 on when it will open up a maintenance base here at the Anchorage airport,” said Tina Hromada of NWA Cargo.

“If we have an aircraft on the ground that needed an aircraft part, in the past, we had to wait for one of our passenger flights from Minneapolis to bring the part to Anchorage. With a maintenance base here we could have a part hot and ready to go in 30 minutes.”

Hromada indicated that due to expanding flights into Asia and China, the Anchorage hub has become a valuable asset to its cargo operations.

“We have a huge perishable market that we are focusing on; with spare parts on hand we can get the freighters up and running in a timely manner,” Hromada said.

The plan for expansion was announced Jan. 30 in Anchorage, at the monthly meeting of the Anchorage Air Cargo Association.

NWA Cargo is the only U.S. carrier to operate an all-cargo fleet of 14 Boeing 747s.

Due to the bankruptcy, NWA Cargo has parked two of its freighters until it has its bankruptcy reorganization plan approved.

According to Hromada, NWA cargo alone earned $600 million in revenues for 2006 with its fleet of Boeing freighters.

“Once the reorganization plan is approved, we are looking at expanding our fleet of passenger aircraft with an order of 18 Boeing 787 aircraft by August 2008,” Hromada said. “On the cargo side, by mid-year 2007 we are looking at either Boeing 747-400, converted 400s or the 800 freighters.”

No decision was announced about where NWA Cargo will operate in the future at the Anchorage airport, but for now, it operates on the northwest side of that facility where it cross-loads cargo with Korean Airlines Cargo aircraft.

Cross-loading refers to the ability to load and unload cargo between international and domestic carriers. This process of transferring cargo between carriers is only allowed at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport due to a law created by the airport's namesake.

“We are the only ones that do what we do, and so we have decided to outsource some of our other services and concentrate on the cross-loading,” Hromada said.

Northwest credited its relationship with Korean Airlines with helping it open a new service into New York and Atlanta last year.

The NWA hub in Anchorage has 110 employees. Northwest Airlines is the world's fifth largest airline and earned a total of $950 million in 2006.