Northwest Airlines is forecasting a loss for the last four months of 2006, but "a modest profit with an estimated pretax margin of approximately 2 percent" for the full year, the Wall Street Journal reports. The outlook partly reflects the company's deep cost cutting that predates its 13 months in Chapter 11 and its reduced capacity. Northwest said it expects its system wide capacity as measured by available seat miles to be 8 percent lower in 2006 than in 2005. The company said its long-term goal is a pretax margin of 6 to 7 percent, which would allow it to acquire and finance new aircraft.
