Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Friday, September 19, 2008

Northwest profit could hit $100M

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Northwest Airlines official said the company could post a pretax profit of $60 million to $100 million in the quarter.

The estimate came Thursday from Chief Financial Officer Dave Davis, who was speaking at an airline investor conference in New York.

The profit prediction did not count potential hedging gains or losses, and Northwest Airlines did not give an earnings-per-share figure.

Northwest said it had $3.3 billion in unrestricted cash as of this week. Northwest is being bought out by Delta Air Lines Inc.; the two have said they expect to have about $6 billion in cash after the deal closes.

Davis said new fees for checked baggage brought in $370,000 on Aug. 31 alone, and the company expects $150 million to $200 million a year in new revenue from those fees.

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