JesseRohr

Today DL2094 was the 5th MD88 mechanical delay I've had in the past few weeks. Three of these five delays have caused me to misconnect in ATL on various trips. One leg even pushed to the following morning of travel.

I have good luck staying off them in BHM but other markets simply have no other aircraft or CRJ service.

Have I just had a string of bad luck or are others seeing MX delays with regularity on MD88 routes?

pvn

I've had 35 MD88/90 segments this year and haven't had a single mx delay.

Anecdotes are not data.

DeltaFan4Now

I've had 3 MD flights in the last week and everything was smooth as silk... Agree with pvn about anecdotes - flip a coin 100 times, you're likely to get seven "tails" in a row at some point.

apodo77

Agreed.
That said the interiors are definitely getting long in the tooth.

pvn

Well nobody seems to like the new interiors either (complaints about lack of padding, etc) so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Slow learner

One MX delay and one CX with MD-80 in the last 3 months. You're not paranoid if they really are out to get you.

indufan

I probably average five MD-88s a month. I like them and they are routinely on time for me.

rodriguezsmith

Thanks for sharing information

Ledfish

I was delayed on 1188 EWR-DTW on 10-06. Pilot, when notifying us of the issue and the part needed, said the part would be coming from either ATL or DTW, because they have lots of parts in stock for the MD-88 at both places.

airmotive

A spike in mx delays in one line of aircraft often mean a new service bulletin or airworthiness directive has been released against a particular model. The bulletins will have a “must complete by” date or certain number of flight hours.
So the flight planners must then schedule every plane, in this case, every MD-80/90, to overnight at a base that has the maintenance manpower and equipment to perform the required maintenance. The scheduling is planned months in advance. If there's a disruption, it scrambles the whole works. If a plane reaches its flight limit before the maintenance action is complete, it might be approved for a non-revenue ferry flight back to a maintenance base where it can be performed.
Fleet management is an amazing science. The people who do it are the kinds of folks who as kids, could sit and watch anthills all day long and never find it anything less than fascinating.

readywhenyouare

It doesn't have anything to do with age. JetBlue had a terrible time with their E190's when they were new. They were jokingly referred to as the E180 because you would turn around and go back to the gate.

aero0729

90% of DL equipment is LOOOONG in the tooth. DL put a lot of lipstick on their pigs.

M88/M90 - 25+ years old
757 - 25+ years old - New configurations look nice but they packed these to the gills low fare carrier style. Same with new 737
747 - We all love - the one I was on looked taped together in Delta One and the aircraft was beat to s***
767 - These are mostly beat up with an outdated Thompson Business Class seat. One of the slimmest seats in Operation but coach is comfortable. The 300 I was on from JFK-ATL had a tape all over both C-class lavatories and no air vents so there are some REALLY old ones. DL buys used planes. These are also MX often.

bergamini

I've had to overnight three times this year involuntarily, once was the ATL thunderstorm debacle and two were due to missed connections because of mechanicals on MD88's. I do realize it's anecdotal, presumably, but I would still love to see the on-time dispatch rate, mechanically speaking, of each plane by model for DL this year. My other two maintenance delays > 2 hours were MD88's as well. In all fairness, I live in a mid-market town so they fly a lot of MD88's here especially since they pulled them out of NYC.

ChiefNWA

^

M88/M90 - They may be old but the mx delays the OP is speaking of is simply anecdotal. I can do the same thing and say that out of my 133 DL flights this year, 41 have been on M88/M90s and 1 has been delayed.

757 - What major doesn't pack their planes to the gill? 30-31 seat pitch is the new norm, whether that be on a DL 757/739, AA 319/Max, UA 320, etc. I'd rather forfeit the small amount of legroom to have a nice, new interior with IFE.

747 - I've only been on a few this year and none appeared particularly beaten to s*** (in D1). Either way, they're gone this year.

767 - I will agree that the 767 seats in D1 were starting to look tattered but it seems like they did some touching up when the new seat covers were put on. The 76Ws I've been on this year have been fine. Oh, and "outdated"? Tell that to AA who is currently installing them on their 767s, sans IFE.

Regardless, the average flyer couldn't care less about the age of the plane. It's all about how the plane looks inside. If the aircraft still operates reliably (which they do given their OT performance), then they're good to go. Also, DL also has 111 brand new 739/321s with another 266 aircraft on order. (321, 739, 350, 339, C100).

3Cforme

Go ahead and compare mainline completion rates and on-times rates of DL to the newer AA and UA fleets over the last 12-24 months. An old fleet doesn't mean a poor-performing fleet.