BUFJets From United States of America, joined Jan 2001, 231 posts, RR: 0 Posted (9 years 6 months 4 weeks 23 hours ago) and read 1425 times:
With the upcoming retirement of Airtran DC-9's, I'm wondring what will happen to them. Is there a market for them? Are some of the remaining Airtran DC-9's low cycle? With other DC-9's sitting in the Desert, I'm guessing there isn't much of a market. Since some of Airtran's DC-9's have the new cockpit doors, maybe somebody would be interested. Is NW buying any more DC-9's? How about Airborne?
Which DC-9's did Airtran keep until the end? The ones last needing a C-Check?
DL_Mech From United States of America, joined Feb 2000, 1761 posts, RR: 10 Reply 1, posted (9 years 6 months 4 weeks 23 hours ago) and read 1356 times:
Some AirTran DC-9's have been scrapped at Opa Locka, Fl. (OPF). The ex-Delta airplanes were high-time in 1992, and FL flew them for another ten years.
Cfalk From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (9 years 6 months 4 weeks 22 hours ago) and read 1307 times:
Some of those DC-9s are over date back to 1967 and '68, and have been doing 6 to 12 cycles per day. I think they have pretty much been amortized.
It says a lot about the ruggedness of the original DC-9 design that they have operated for so long and with relatively few accidents even in the past few years when even the newest ones are over 20 years old.
Beltwaybandit From United States of America, joined Mar 2003, 495 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (9 years 6 months 4 weeks 21 hours ago) and read 1214 times:
It's hard to see where these aircraft would go, given that there are much newer, more efficient planes sitting in the desert. The engines may have a future elsewhere.
Dutchjet From Netherlands, joined Oct 2000, 7864 posts, RR: 58 Reply 4, posted (9 years 6 months 4 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 1128 times:
Unless Northwest buys them (just kidding guys, NW is a good airline and I consider their DC9s a very special case, NW practically rebuilt each and everyone of their DC9s and invested a fortune into the airframes), the Airtran DC9s are likely to be scrapped as they are at the end of the economic and useful lives........as pointed out, some of the DC-9s are in excess of 35 years old and it would be a waste of resources to put them into storage in the desert as that also costs money and no one is interested in purchasing them at this point. The Airtran DC-9s were acquired from a variety of airlines.
Usually, the engines are the most valuable part of an airliner headed for scrap, but with the world's DC-9 population in operation shrinking very quickly, i wonder if anyone wants the old JT8Ds?
GroundStop From United States of America, joined Jun 2003, 611 posts, RR: 6 Reply 5, posted (9 years 6 months 4 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 1063 times:
The majority of our DC9's are being scrapped at OPF. Several are also at the mx base in MCO. So far, at least two have been donated. One to the Heart of Georgia Technical College (4000' x 75' runway) and one to an aviation museum in Virginia. The remaining aircraft are 936, 948 and 949. They all still fly everyday. One has a full day, one usually flies about 4 legs, and one is a spare.
Bahadir From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 1727 posts, RR: 12 Reply 6, posted (9 years 6 months 4 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 1047 times:
Any ex-Turkish ones? It would be a nice thing to go and pay them a last visit since the days I flew them when I was a kid.
Travatl From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 2172 posts, RR: 11 Reply 7, posted (9 years 6 months 4 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 1007 times:
Bahadir -
936 is a former THY bird.... 948 and 949 both came from British Midland....
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