Busy Period for Complaint Dept.

Many Northwest Airlines passengers have complained of the airline’s service since it merged with Republic Airlines on Oct. 1. And the anecdotal evidence of problems is borne out by government statistics.

According to the Transporation Department, Northwest ranked third among all U.S. airlines in October in the number of complaints received by the department. In November, the airline jumped to first, then fell to sixth place in December as merger woes began to ease.

For all of 1986, 455 complaints about Northwest were lodged with the Transporation Department. That represented 2.67 complaints per 100,000 Northwest passengers, ranking the airline ninth among U.S. air carriers. A year earlier, it had ranked 11th.