Originally Posted by
readywhenyouare
It would make sense to run planes like the MD-88's with lower costs right now. They are paid for and the pilots have a cheaper pay rate.
Delta doesn't have a choice, short of Ch 11, to stop paying the financing payments for newer aircraft, so they might as well run newer aircraft that are more fuel efficient and have lower maintenance costs and park the older ones (this is offset somewhat by the fact that most of their newer aircraft are also bigger, but I imagine it still works out in favor of the newer aircraft). In the short term the ownership cost of their fleet is a fixed cost, but the cost incurred by operating each flight is up to the choice of which aircraft stay in the air.