WASHINGTON — Sen. Chuck Grassley today said that Northwest Airlines has informed him that the direct flight between Des Moines and Washington, DC will have an additional 25 seats on each flight beginning August 23rd.
Northwest said it will begin using a larger plane, the ARJ aircraft, which has 69 seats. This includes 16 seats in first class. The current service is 44 seats with no first class. The new service will begin selling on May 28th.
"When Northwest announced this service, I gave Iowans a challenge. We needed to use it or lose it. Iowans have really stepped up and shown their support for a nonstop flight to the Nation’s Capital," Grassley said. "Northwest is obviously pleased with the commitment made by Iowans to make this service work."
"Thanks to the support of local travelers, Northwest's nonstop Des Moines - Washington service has been our strongest new route of all time," said Tom Bach, vice president of market planning and Airlink at Northwest Airlines. "The introduction of the ARJ aircraft responds to the strong demand we are seeing for our new capitol-to-capitol nonstop, providing an increase in seat capacity of more than 55% and the addition of a large, 16-seat first class cabin for our business travelers."
Northwest Airlines began the direct service between Des Moines and Washington, DC on March 1.
-30-