Aircraft – Embraer 175

The DC-9 replacement dilemma pestered NWA through the 1990s and 2000s – while the carrier made the best of its situation during the economic troubles after the Gulf War by renewing interiors and making smart maintenance investments that preserved capital and extended the “Nines'” lives, the strategy only pushed the decision of what to do farther into the future.

In retrospect, looking at the success Delta had with the Boeing 717 (nee MD-95), one could make a strong argument NWA should have secured orders at the beginning of the program. But that’s the start of a different aircraft story – instead, by the mid-2000s Northwest was tallying the positive passenger experience and premium revenue coming its way from Mesaba’s Avro RJ fleet and considering how it could use large regional jets to replace a substantial number of DC-9-30s (as the ARJs had been able to do with the DC-9-10s.) As British Aerospace was giving up on its commercial aircraft program, expanding the Avro fleet was out of the question – and there were new entrants promising mainline amenities with lower maintenance requirements, using lower-wage Airlink crews.

By mid-2006, NWA had narrowed the candidates to Embraer’s E-jet series, and Bombardier’s larger CRJ models. Northwest’s priority was to ensure the jet they picked could handle a reasonable number of domestic First Class seats while maximizing Coach passenger counts but staying inside its Pilots’ contracted scope clause. In the end, NWA picked both aircraft.

In October, Northwest announced a firm order for 36 E-175s, with options for additional 36 aircraft of the same type and up to 100 rolling purchase rights. The E-Jets were assigned to regional subsidiary Compass Airlines, and were configured for 76 seats in dual-class configuration – 12 first class seats, and 64 coach class seats.

Deliveries started in July 2007, and by October 2009, all 36 had been delivered. In combination with the CRJ-900s also ordered, Northwest had nearly met its objective – reducing its DC-9-30 fleet from 69 frames in mid-2006 to just 28 in mid-2009. The E-175s continued to fly in Delta colors through the 2010s, following Northwest’s strategy of extending First Class to as many regional and small markets as possible.

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Post-NWA usage by Compass

Delta assumed ownership of the E-175 fleet and kept them assigned to Compass, where they served to April 2020. At that point Compass was wound down – Delta reassigned the frames to Endeavor, Skywest, and Republic Airways.

For Compass’ contract with American from 2015-2020, 20 frames were leased from that carrier.

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