From its opening in Spring 1978 to just before Delta’s exit in March 2020, here are maps showing the extent of Northwest’s passenger network through NRT every five years:
Longer-range 747s and the long runway at Narita allow for Chicago nonstops, the first of many extended-distance routes to come!Premier nonstop routings to LAX and JFK come on line, as well as the tourist pipeline to Guam.Post-merger Northwest sees the Detroit hub start its growth, and the intra-Asian network becomes all nonstop from Tokyo instead of multi-stop. (Dotted lines in the US represent same flight number but change-of-gauge operations.)In the early 1990s the Northwest Asian network competes on all the heaviest East Asian international sectors out of Tokyo.The Minneapolis/St. Paul hub finally gets nonstop service, and Anchorage and Las Vegas are trialled. (Who knows what NWA might have done with these routes if the 787 was completed on its original schedule?)Narrowbody flying (first with A320s, then 757s) resumes with the aim of opening-up secondary destinations such as Busan, Korea, and Kaohsiung, Taiwan.New York is sacrificed (but was expected to return when Boeing 787s were delivered). Portland gets its long-awaited link to Asia. Some fine-tuning of the narrow-gauge deployment continues with Guangzhou notably representing the first Chinese destination served by a US carrier outside the trinity of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing.New York and Atlanta come on-stream post-merger, and vacation flights to Micronesia commence using 757s.Eventually Manila would be the only ‘beyond’ route. Pre COVID-19, the plan was to shift MNL flights on Delta metal to route through the Delta/Korean Air Seoul-Incheon hub and then to a US destination.
