MD-90 Aircraft: The Definitive Thread
 

I finally saw an MD-90 in the latest paint scheme! For a very long time, only the L-1011 and the MD-90 were left in the old paint job. I could understand that not much was done to the L-1011's, after all they are on their way out. That led me to believe that there was some truth to the rumour that MD-90 was on its way out too. But now with the latest "Deltaflot" paint job, maybe they are going to stay?

BTW, ship 9215 was the one I saw. Are there any more out there?

/Pete

L1011: MD90's & MD11's are on an accelerated depreciation schedule to be retired over the next six or seven years. This is part of the plan to reduce fleet types. Probably the one you saw simply got to a point where it had to be repainted.

Sadly, all 1011's (your moniker) will be gone by August. *sob*

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"Service" should be a noun, not a verb.

I believe when an aircraft is due for it's major overhaul, the plane is taken apart, inspected, and put back together. At this point, a new paint job is applied.

At what time do the aircrafts get their major overhaul? The oldest MD-90's seem to be from 1995, so that makes it 6 years of service before a new paint job. Some other aircrafts have had two paint jobs in that time (I've seen some with both the "Delta Air Lines" and the "Deltaflot" paint schemes). The MD-11's have had a new paint for quite some time now, and they are about of the same vintage and the -90.

/Pete

Every 6 years is about right for a "D Check" when they take the airplane down to bare metal during the overhaul.

Whither the MD-90?
 

So what will happen to the ultra-quiet final-product-of-MacDAC* of which DL has 15 (or is it 16?) examples?

Could they be re-cofigured into a dedicated shuttle/charter fleet to operate BOS-LGA/LGA-DCA *and* BOS-DCA (goodbye CRJ'S!) service, with the possibility of being available for charter service on weekends?

That would help DL do away with the folly of the one-class "Shuttle" 738's ending up scattered in terra incognita (i.e. the world outside of the NEC :D )and allow DL to retire/sell the 733's, Glass- or Classic-cockpit.

Or is the range of the MD-90 too good to have them not fly long routes?

What say you?

*(Assumes that you believe that the Boeing merger was not in fact the takeover of Boeing by Stonecipher et al that many think it truely was)

They're outta here... no way to keep up such a small fleet economically.

I always thought they were similar in maintanance to the MD-80 series.

No, they're a redesigned version, with different engines and wings. A fair comparison would be a 737-300 and a 737-700.

The MD-90 maintenance base is in DFW - another bad sign for the fleet type.

$40 Oil Might Trump Commonality Madness
 

:cool: With $40 Oil, and assuming the MD-90 is way better on fuel than the MD-88 and 737-300, Delta may keep them. I'm sure the cost per trip difference on longer legs in the MD-90 is significanly lower than the MD-88. I know Airtran was pleasantly surprised when the 717 ended up being 25% better on fuel than their old DC-9's. Commonality madness made sense when Oil was $25 per barrel or lower, now it just seems silly. I bet Frontier just loves those A-318's with oil at $44 per barrel!

Seeing as the 717's systems are 20 years newer than the old DC-9s, one would hope for better fuel economy!

BTW I happen to love the 717, pity it appears never to have caught on in the airline industry.

I would expect to see the MD-90s flying out of SLC primarily. They are not on the list of the 4 fleet types to be retired.

Source: Aviation Daily The airline also may look to drop its fleet of 16 MD-90s, which are operate with different engines than its fleet of 120 MD-88s.

From what I've heard the A-318 is a horribly inefficient plane compared to other aircraft with similar seating capacities because of the fact it's based off a much larger aircraft and they were not able to scale down the weight of the aircraft nearly in proportion to its passenger load. The A-318 only makes sense from a commonality stand point, certainly not from an efficiency stand point.

actually I've read the 90s are more expensive to operate than the 88s. can't remember where otherwise I'd post a link.