MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Northwest has indicated it would move 17 jets from regional carrier Pinnacle Airlines to its newly acquired subsidiary, Mesaba.

Tom Wychor, chairman of the Mesaba branch of the Air Line Pilots Association, estimated about 150 more pilots will be needed to accommodate the new flying.

"We'll need to hire additional pilots, flight attendants and mechanics," Mesaba Airlines President John Spanjers said in a message to employees late Thursday.

Mesaba already expects to hire about 800 people through 2008 to staff ground and flight operations for three dozen new 76-seat CRJs that it will operate for Northwest.

By the end of next year, Mesaba's fleet is expected to reach 102.

Mesaba Airlines had scaled back its operations after filing for bankruptcy about 18 months ago. The expansion "will return Mesaba to the size it was before bankruptcy," Wychor said.

Mesaba emerged from bankruptcy this week as a subsidiary of Northwest. In North Dakota, Mesaba provides the only commercial service to Devils Lake and Jamestown, and serves Fargo, Bismarck and Grand Forks.

Pinnacle, based in Memphis, is losing the jets because it failed to negotiate a labor agreement with its pilots union by March 31. Northwest had said the deadline must be met or Pinnacle would risk losing the jets.

Northwest will start reallocating the planes to Mesaba in September.

"Northwest put an unreasonable deadline on us getting a new contract," said Wakefield Gordon, chairman of the Pinnacle pilots union. "We didn't make the deadline, and we lost the airplanes."

Pinnacle will continue to operate 124 50-seat Canadair Regional Jets for Northwest.