Originally Posted by ethernal

Not to question your claim of 12 cancellations, but I doubt the majority - or even more than two or three - were MX cancellations. Delta has an insanely high completion factor and has almost no mainline domestic MX cancellations. They are all out-and-backs to Atlanta which has a world-class maintenance facility. And since they only fly short hauls from Atlanta, Delta has enough spares floating around to send out a rescue plane on short notice if they can't do a quick repair at the outstation.

I won't argue that MD-88s are more likely to be delayed, but the majority of that is not going to be from MX either. They are high frequency, short turn planes flying exclusively on the East Coast in pretty congested air space. Again, a 737 or A320 flying the same routes with the same frequency would have similar issues.

I am sure that they are getting more MX delays due to the fact they are keeping them flying with duct tape and spares from planes that were retired at the end of their life. But you are either the world's most unlucky flyer, or most of your cancellations were from WX - in which case I doubt it would make that much of a difference whether it was an MD-88 or a 737.