NWA's 82 years plying the skies

1927 Passenger service begins, with 106 total passengers by year's end.

1929 Twin Cities businessmen, led by Richard C. Lilly of St. Paul, purchase the company from the Michigan investor group.

1930 Operations base moved to what is later St. Paul's Holman Field.

1934 Northwest Airways is reincorporated under Minnesota law as Northwest Airlines Inc.

1939 First stewardess is hired to work on the newly purchased DC-3 carrying 21 passengers.

1941 Northwest common stock goes public for the first time.

1947 Becomes the first commercial airline to fly from the United States to Japan. It rebrands itself as Northwest Orient Airlines.

1960 Moves into new headquarters at Wold-Chamberlain Field (now Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport).

1970 Introduces the Boeing 747 jumbo jet on its transpacific routes.

1979 Enters the transatlantic passenger market with service to Copenhagen and Stockholm.

1980 Adds a Minneapolis-to-London flight to its growing transatlantic system.

1984 After a 35-year hiatus, Northwest resumes service to China.

1984 Northwest and Mesaba Airlines announce a regional airline marketing partnership, the first Northwest Airlink agreement.

1986 Northwest acquires Twin Cities-based Republic Airlines for $884 million, nearly doubling its workforce to 33,000 and boosting its presence in the U.S. market with hubs in the Twin Cities, Detroit and Memphis. Northwest drops the word "Orient" from its name.

August 1987 A Northwest MD-80 crashes on takeoff at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing 156 people in the airline's worst accident.

1988 Becomes the first major U.S. airline to ban smoking on all North American flights.

1989 Northwest is acquired in a $3.5 billion leveraged buyout by investors led by California financiers Al Checchi and Gary Wilson. The company becomes a privately held corporation for the first time since 1941.

1990-91 Iraq invades Kuwait, driving up oil prices and sparking a recession. As the Persian Gulf War starts, Northwest teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.

1991 The Minnesota Legislature approves a financial aid package of $838 million for a maintenance base in Duluth and an engine overhaul facility in Hibbing.

1991 Becomes the first U.S. airline to fly over the Soviet Union since World War II and announces charter service to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the first U.S. airline to fly into Vietnam since the Vietnam War.

1992 Becomes the first Western airline to operate scheduled flights through Russian air space.

1992 Gov. Arne Carlson signs a revised $270 million loan and $491 million construction financing package, which includes job and hub guarantees to the state.

1993 Completes a voluntary financial structuring including a three-year wage reduction agreement with employees, avoiding bankruptcy.

1993 U.S. regulators approve alliance with KLM, greatly expanding Northwest sales in Europe.

1994 Northwest renegotiates the 1992 state financing package. The new plan scales back employment at the Duluth base, cancels the engine repair facility in Hibbing and adds a reservation center in Chisholm.

1994 Once again profitable, Northwest goes public for a second time.

1995 Northwest increases its ownership of AirTran, parent company of Mesaba Aviation, to 30 percent.

1996 Duluth aircraft maintenance base and Chisholm reservation center open.

1997 Northwest purchases Express Airlines, which operates as a Northwest Airlink partner in Memphis. Northwest and Mesaba sign a 10-year agreement for Mesaba to operate as Northwest Airlink at Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

1998 Pilots strike for 15 days, shutting down all operations.

2001 Sept. 11 attacks pummel the airline industry. Northwest cuts flights by 20 percent and lays off 10,000 workers.

2003 Citing the Iraq war and a viral outbreak in Asia, Northwest lays off an additional 4,900 workers. To avert bankruptcy, the airline also seeks annual employee pay concessions of $950 million, a figure that is raised to $1.1 billion in early 2005.

August 2005 Northwest mechanics strike on Aug. 19 rather than accept wage cuts and layoffs. Airline continues to operate with replacements. Northwest's maintenance base in Duluth is idled by the strike.

Sept. 14, 2005 Seventeen days after Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast and sends oil prices soaring, Northwest and Delta Airlines both file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

November 2006 Mechanics vote to end a failed 15-month strike after Northwest hires permanent replacement workers including strikers who crossed picket lines.

April 2007 Mesaba Airlines becomes a subsidiary of Northwest.

May 2007 Compass Airlines, a new Virginia-based subsidiary of Northwest created to fly large regional jets, begins flights between the Twin Cities and Dulles International Airport near Washington.

May 31, 2007 After slashing costs by $2.4 billion and reducing debt and lease obligations by $4.2 billion, Northwest emerges from 20 months of bankruptcy protection.

June 2007 Leaders of the Northwest pilots union give the airline's executives a vote of "no confidence," specifically criticizing pilot staffing shortages.

July 2007 Northwest announces it expects to hire 250 to 350 pilots within the next 12 months -- the first pilot hires since 2001.

August 2007 Northwest and TPG Capital, a private equity partner, agree to buy Midwest Airlines for $450 million. The deal is approved in January 2008.

October 2007 Northwest posts its best earnings in 10 years, reporting a pretax profit of $405 million for the third quarter.

November 2007 With oil approaching $100 a barrel, analysts and shareholders fuel merger speculation.

PATRICK KENNEDY