Northwest has received US court approval to exit bankruptcy

"We are pleased to have completed our restructuring successfully. We are now focused on emerging from Chapter 11 as a strong, publicly traded company," said Doug Steenland, Northwest president and CEO.



This development comes as a federal judge approved Northwest's re-organisation plan, giving the company time to meet all the closing conditions of the plan and negotiate US$750 million in funding with debtors.



Northwest expected to emerge from Chapter 11 at the end of a restructuring lasting 20 months that has seen the airline cut costs by US$2.5 billion, largely due to renegotiating labour contracts; returning to profitability and continuing fleet renewal, said a report in The Malaysia Sun.



"I am pleased that we plan to share with our employees some $1.6 billion in claims payments and anticipated profit sharing through 2010," said Mr Steenland.



Northwest expects to be worth around $7 billion once it emerges from bankruptcy protection, following in the footsteps of Delta Airlines and UAL Corp's United Airlines which have also recently exited bankruptcy protection.