Is Northwest Airlines still a local story?

Here’s a question I’ve been noodling on. When do we stop caring about Northwest Airlines as a local story? When it was a hometown airline, it was obvious to most of us, I think, why we needed to concentrate on it. It was one of us. But now it’s a part of an airline based in Atlanta, we’re another stop on its thousands of destinations. We’re a busy Cincinnati.

So do we still care what its CEO thinks? Is that still a story with a “local angle”?

If Richard Anderson, former Northwest chairman (and MPR board member) and now Delta CEO, goes on TV and talks about how great bankruptcy was for his airline(s) and is asked whether it’d be just as fabulous for the auto industry, do we care?

By the way, there was an event today that further solidified the end of the Northwest brand. The first Delta-emblazoned 747 took off from Minneapolis-St. Paul today, bound for Japan.