Currently,the 30 that are being retired are DC-9-30's, the oldest the NW has. NW had been drawing down the -40 series as well. With 130+ DC-9's in the fleet, it will take a while to retire all of them, but keep in mind, some of the planes are not as old as you think....most were built bewteen 1968 and 1980. To illustrate the fact of how well planges age, some of the 757-5500 series were built in 1985, and they look older on the inside! NW spent buko $$$on refurbishing the -9's, AND they are PAID FOR! How many airlines can say that 1/3 of their fleet is paid for? NONE!
Anyway, NW is looking at many replacements for the DC-9...such as the ERJ-175 and -195 series, A318, and so on. While some may be RJ's, they have better range, with similar capacity, and are 30-40% more fuel efficient than a 737-500!
Dont get me wrong..I love Boeing jets! But I also believe in a strong business model that keeps a company alive!
With the advent of the A330's and now the 787, we can go to a very commanalized fleet of twin engines aircraft. (The 787 can have a range of 8,500+km!!!) Doing this saves $ in fuel, training costs, replacement costs, and so on!
Watch NW, thy are going to be one of, if not the only, legacy carrier to make it in these tough economic times!
NWstew72
Originally Posted by OutOfOffice
I was reading Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the sky, and as part of his article discussing the pending layoff of 600 Mechanics at MSP, he mentions the phase out of the remaining 30 DC-9's. I know first of all that there are 150+ the fleet and I was under the impression that there are a few more years left in them. So do we still have the Douglas name in our flying future?