Originally Posted by
Uldall
According to Wikipedia as of April 2007, the only airlines worldwide still operating MD-11s on their regular intercontinental flights are: Finnair (7), KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (10), TAM Linhas Aéreas (3) and VRG Linhas Aereas (1) i.e. only 21 active passenger jets out of total 200 build frames, which says more than many words about the successful MD-11
Looking forward to the all Airbus intercontinental fleet with Finnair via HEL.
The reason is simple. Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas and cancelled all production of the MD11 series... It's still the most desirable cargo plane on the planet. The use for 3 or 4 engines is non existent anymore, just burns a lot more fuel and the fuel prices back then were 1/3 of what they are now.
Let's compare to the A340 series that Finnair is replacing the MD11 with. The A340-300 does not sell at all after only 200 ordered aircraft. Why? Due to fuel prices and better aircraft available. The 777 has crushed the A340-600/500 series and the 787 is getting all orders in the lower segments. The 340-200/300 program will not get any more sales. Finnair has made a bad choice, but their A350 choice is a lot better.
So the A340 and the MD11 are not successful for obvious reasons