A timeline of Northwest Airlines' path through bankruptcy
May, 2007

Northwest Airlines emerges from bankrupcty protection on May 31. It's been a long and difficult 20 months for the airline, its employees and its customers. Here's a summary of the notable events of that period.

Aug. 19, 2005	Northwest Airlines' mechanics union goes on strike. Read more.
Aug. 30, 2005	Hurricane Katrina hits Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, causing massive flooding and devastation. Read more.
Sept. 14, 2005	Northwest Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, minutes after Delta Airlines does the same. Read more.
Jan. 20, 2006	Northwest reaches a tentative agreement with its groundworkers union, the company's largest union.
March 2006	Northwest gate agents ratify wage concessions. Groundworkers union rank-and-file members reject their wage concession proposal. Flight attendants and pilots reach tentative cost-cutting agreements.
May 3, 2006	Members of the pilots union ratify a 24 percent wage cut, after agreeing to a 15 percent wage cut in December 2006. Read more.
June 6, 2006	Flight attendants rank and file reject their contract proposal. Read more.
June 9, 2006	Groundworkers ratify a contract calling for wage cuts of 11.5 percent. Read more.
July 6, 2006	Flight attendants vote to quit their union, the Professional Flight Attendants Association, and affiliate with the larger, stronger, Association of Flight Attendants, which is the country's largest flight attendants union. Read more.
July 31, 2006	Flight attendants reject a second contract proposal. Northwest imposes the contract terms on flight attendants, including wage cuts. The union threatens to strike. Read more.
Aug. 1, 2006	Northwest implements cost-cutting contracts with two unions.
Aug. 17, 2006	President Bush signs pension reform legislation which allows Northwest to freeze pension plans and pay them down over a 17-year period. Bankruptcy judge Allan Gropper rules he does not have the authority to block a flight attendants' strike.
Aug. 27, 2006	Federal Judge Victor Marrero issues an injunction which prohibits the flight attendants from striking. Read more.
Jan. 4, 2007	Northwest reaches a deal to buy its regional feeder carrier Mesaba Airlines, which is also in bankruptcy. Read more.
March 29, 2007	A federal appeals court upholds the injunction barring a flight attendants' strike. Read more.
April 24, 2007	NWA subsidiary Mesaba Airlines leaves Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
April 26, 2007	Northwest reaches a third tentative contract with the flight attendants union. Read more.
May 29, 2007	Flight attendants narrowly ratify contract including pay cuts. Read more.
May 31, 2007	Northwest Airlines emerges from bankruptcy.