(Case Analysis: Northwest Airlines and the Detroit Snowstorm

1. What exactly went wrong? How bad was this situation? Ans: There was a snowstorm on Saturday, January 2nd, which was very serious and caused over 10 inches of snowfall. Northwest Airlines had been too late to halt the departure of their planes from other cities to Detroit, on of its largest hub. They made the decision to let 30 planes land in Detroit on Sunday, neglecting those 14 inches of snow and the severe weather condition. Luckily, all the planes were landed successfully without any major accidents or disasters. However, the planes had to sit on the tarmac for over 8 hours before they could deplane their passengers. All the food, water and drinks were used up …show more content…

In my opinion, the whole NWA and Detroit Metro Airport should take responsibility of this severe situation. The bad decision from the SOC director was actually just focused on making more flights (which meant more revenue), neglecting the potential danger and disaster. The lack of integrated stairs in the planes of Northwest Airline should not be neglected, or else the passengers could have been deplaned using the integrated stairs as Spirit Airline did. The lack of communication with the other airlines was also one of the major causes of the disaster. Northwest Airline maybe too proud of themselves at this hub because they were the chief airline of the Detroit Metro Airport as their flights had accounted approximately 57% of the airport’s total scheduled passenger operations. They just did not want to ask for a helping hand from the other airlines in my opinion as they did not realize how critical the situation was in the cabin. On the other hand, the airport should also take action to deplane all the flights as soon as possible by asking the use of open gates from other airlines. They should realize the shortage of water and food inside the flights. There was not only one flight on the taxiways, but thirty. The lives of the passengers should be at the top priority of which the control manager of the airport had not noticed, despite the fact that he was surrounded and bombed by