GRAND FORKS (AP) - Northwest Airlines service is not keeping up with this community's growth, city leaders told a representative of the airline.

City Council President Hal Gershman on Saturday pointed out that the city's population is growing, the University of North Dakota has a record number of students, jobs are increasing, Altru Hospital is expanding and a $50 million hotel is under construction next to the Alerus Center.

"Everything in Grand Forks is growing except air service," Gershman told Dennis Newman, director of North American planning and scheduling for Northwest, at a meeting called by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "And we need better air service to keep that growth growing."

Newman said Northwest was struggling to restructure itself under bankruptcy and that the process has included cutting the number of airplanes, flights and employees across its entire system, including two flights the past year to Grand Forks.

"We are starting to get things turned around," he said. "We have had a rough go of it."

Grand Forks has five flights to and from Minneapolis, and Newman said adding a sixth flight is not likely.

However, "We are not closing the door forever to (adding) a sixth flight," he said. "It's definitely something we will keep looking at."