Northwest to end daily Europe flight from Conn.

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. - Northwest Airlines Inc., citing record high fuel prices, says it will end its daily, nonstop service to Amsterdam from Bradley International Airport.

The loss of the direct flight to Europe from Connecticut, which began a year ago, undermines — but does not cripple — the ability by regional officials to boost economic development, said Oz Griebel, president and chief executive of the Metro Hartford Alliance.

"We lost a very significant arrow. We did not lose the quiver," he said. "No one of these things is a fatal blow to this region."

Northwest Airlines announced it also will suspend flights between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Paris and from Detroit to Dusseldorf, Germany. Cancellation of the routes is effective Oct. 1.

"With oil reaching a record-breaking $140 a barrel today, the reductions come in response to soaring fuel costs and decreased customer demand," Northwest said Thursday.

Kiran Jain, director of marketing and route development at Bradley, said there was little if anything the airport or state economic development officials could have done to prevent Northwest from pulling the plug on the trans-Atlantic flight.

"This is really a reflection of spiraling fuel prices instead of any incentive package you can put together," she said.

The announcement came just a day after Delta Air Lines said it will end its flights in September from Bradley to Los Angeles, the airport's only nonstop service to the West Coast. Soaring fuel prices also were cited.

When the Hartford-to-Amstersdam service was launched last year, state officials hailed it as a major benefit for businesses and travelers in Connecticut and western Massachusetts.

"What the Amsterdam air service did for us was allow us to put a spotlight on the region which we were not able to do otherwise," Griebel said. "We're optimistic that when some kind of normalcy returns to oil pricing — whatever normalcy means — that as airlines begin to look at coming back in the marketplace, Bradley will be back in the mix, particularly for Amsterdam."

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