Edward Hasbrouck, author of The Practical Nomad, has a useful post about the Northwest and Delta airline bankruptcies. Salient point:

If you haven’t bought tickets yet, don’t buy tickets on an airline that is already bankrupt. A bankruptcy filing is your final warning before an airline could be shut down by the bankruptcy court, leaving ticket holders stranded. A better schedule, a more direct route, or a lower price probably aren’t worth the greater risk that you might not get where you are going at all, or might not get back home.

Read the rest of the post for more details.

This development is of particular importance to Prince Edward Island, as Northwest’s feeder airline, Northwest Airlink, operated by Pinnacle Airlines, is the only airline operating direct flights from Charlottetown to the U.S. Here’s Pinnacle’s stock price.