Northwest acknowledged Friday it had already turned over three months of reservation data to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames
Research Center by that point.
The Fourth largest air carrier denied having given out any private information shortly after the 9-11 attacks.
Another air carrier Jet blue said publicly that it turned over records to a defense contractor.
Sounds like they're trying to keep track of employees/former employees by doing this. Thats the only good explanation I can think of for a group
like NASA wanting such information.