Northwest Air's parent meets with banks.

NWA Inc., parent of Northwest Airlines, met Friday with its bank group, led by Bankers Trust Co.

Details of the meeting could not be learned by late Friday, but talks were expected to focus on the company's need to restructure some of its roughly $4 billion of long-term debt.

Debt Stems from Buyout

The financially strapped airline still has about $1.25 billion in acquisition-related bank debt stemming from the 1989 leveraged buyout of the airlines for $3.6 billion by Los Angeles investor Alfred Checci.

The rest of the debt is in the form of aircraft financing from various lenders.

NWA has been working on two new financings - the sale and leaseback of aircraft, which would raise $600 million to $700 million, and a $200 million corporate receives facility.

Some Debt Would Be Repaid

Proceeds would be used in part to prepay a portion of NWA's remaining buyout debt.

The idea, a banker said, is to take out near-term maturities with longer-term financing of seven to 10 years.

NWA faces its next payment on the buyout loan in September 1993.

Late last month, the company drew down the remaining $107 million of a $600 million line of revolving credit.

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