Northwest Airlines has reported bankruptcy exit aided net income of $2.32 billion for 2007, marking a substantial turnaround from a net loss of $2.86 billion for 2006, when it was operating under Chapter 11 protection.

The carrier's 2007 pre-tax income, excluding reorganization items, was $764 million, which marks an improvement of more-than-150 per cent over the pre-tax income of $301 million for 2006.

It reported a Q4 net loss of $8 million, which is once again a massive improvement over the net loss of $267 million for the same period in 2006.

President and CEO, Doug Steenland, said that the pre-tax result was "the third highest in company history" and also that he was particularly "satisfied" with Q4 earnings, "which were essentially breakeven [in what is] historically a weak quarter for us."

In this context he also noted that most US airlines had bigger losses for the same period.

In a conference call with analysts and reporters, he declined to discuss industry speculation that NWA was in merger talks with Delta Air Lines.

Steenland added that the airline's freighter capacity "is going to be down" in 2008 and management will "continue to look at the [cargo] business as a whole and look at what fleet decision we may have to take."

NWA is the only US international carrier operating freighters, with 12 747-200Fs that are mainly serving the trans-Pacific route. Airline officials have acknowledged that the cargo division has been under-performing.

While full-year revenue for 2007 dipped 0.3%, to $12.53 billion, expenses dropped 3.4% to $11.42 billion. Operating income was up 49.2%, to of $1.1 billion, from $740 million in 2006.

NWA projects that mainline capacity will be flat year-over-year in 2008, with domestic capacity declining 5.5%-6.5% and international ASMs rising 8%-9%.