EAGAN, Minn. - (July 10, 2008) - Northwest Airlines (NYSE:NWA) President and CEO Doug Steenland criticized financial speculation in light of today's rapid run-up in oil prices in the final hour of trading and said, "If anybody needed any further evidence that the oil markets are being directly influenced and affected by financial speculation, today's result ends that debate."

He added, "With no single event occurring that would cause supply to decrease or demand for oil to increase, the price in the last 20 minutes of trading went up about $5 a barrel as a result of financial players, near the close of trading, coming into the market and driving up price."

Steenland, who is also the Chairman of the Board of the Air Transport Association, recently testified in Congress on this issue, and added, "Today's result is the poster child of why Congress needs to take immediate action to change the law and stop these abuses from adversely affecting the U.S. economy and consumers."

Over the last year, the price of crude oil has more than doubled. To help fix these unprecedented oil challenges, Steenland favors increasing domestic supply, further oil exploration in the United States, investing in alternative energy sources, and conservation.

20,000 emails from NWA and DL employees; 300,000 emails from customers kick-start the lobbying campaign

For past the two weeks, Northwest and Delta Air Lines employees have together sent more than 20,000 messages to Congressional leaders, urging them to pass legislation that will limit this rampant oil speculation.

Northwest and Delta also joined 10 other airlines -- which are part of broad business, labor and consumer coalition -- in emailing their frequent flier databases, asking customers to join them in fighting the high cost of fuel. Since the email campaign launched yesterday, 300,000 emails have already been sent by customers to Members of Congress.

For more information and to take part in the letter-writing campaign, customers can log on to www.StopOilSpeculationNow.com.

Northwest Airlines is one of the world's largest airlines with hubs at Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Tokyo and Amsterdam. Northwest, with its regional partners, operates approximately 2,400 daily departures. Northwest is a member of SkyTeam, an airline alliance that offers customers one of the world's most extensive global networks. Northwest and its travel partners serve more than 1,000 cities in excess of 160 countries on six continents.