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Flew into this morning an noticed a NW DC-10 parked just outside the DL hanger. Just wondering why it might be here, all the NW jets I've seen in DFW are A319/320's and Avro's. Is this a charter or something along those lines? Just curious.

Detroit Lions football charter in town to play the Cowboys.

Ahhh...cool thanks for the info NikonDFW!

Does anyone know who the following teams use for their away games ?

Jets

Rams

Steelers

Browns (i beleive they use a DL 763,that's what they came into ROC on for training camp)

Have we ever had an A320 here at DFW? I think UA, TACA, and NW all use A319s don't they? Just curious.

Why does a football team need such a big plane?
Shouldn't a A320 do?

MADtoCAE,

In short, yes a A320 would work, however, keep in mind we are talking FOOT-BALL players here and they are larger than most sport players...also the FootBall players for years used the special fit 727's which were VERY spacious...Each team also lets NW know what their needs are...how many people will be traveling...press could also be included in all of that...

There are many factors when it comes into play for charters.

Does anyone remember when a NW DC-10 was used in a sports charter flight to HOU? I've seen pics of it.
-Joe

Let's also remember that a football team has probably the most gear of any sport to travel with. Extra helmets, jersies, face masks, cleats, pants...I could go on and on and on. It's amazing how much they travel with. Let's remember the Raiders used a HA DC-10 to fly from Oakland to San Diego, just for the Super Bowl. Couldn't charter a few coaches for that...

We have season tickets this year for Oregon State Football, and when Cal and Washington State came the last two home games, it was amazing to see how many trunks they haul with them. There were 8-10 on the side lines for each team. Those things house everything from first aid stuff, to screws, and extra cleats for they're shoes. Can't wait to see how much crap USC brings next week when they come to whoop our butts.  

College teams usually charter through airlines, as well. But they mostly stay with the smaller variety of plane. Uncle Phill usually gets the University of Oregon a 757 or larger for the Ducks.

United_Fan,

The Steelers use a US AIRWAYS A-321.

NWA will also bring in a B747-200 into DFW on Nov 14th, and will depart
the 16th.

Should plan an DFW airliners meeting that weekend....any takers?

N839MH

MEA Middle East Airlines (Lebanon)">ME! (well wish I could..Im working the charter into DFW that day!)

About 10 teams use Delta which uses 757's on flights 2 hours or less & 767-300's for anything longer....Carolina also uses the A320 for it's charters.

BH,a USAir A321 isn't worth the drive to BUF when they play the Bills. A NW DC-10,yes!,but not a A321.

NW never used the 727's for football charters. Up through the end of the 2003 NBA/NHL season, NW would specially configure a sub-fleet of 5 727-200's in a luxurious sports charter configuration. There were several NBA and NHL teams that would use these aircraft throughout the season. In the spring, the aircraft would then be converted back into normal passenger configuration. The sports charter 727 would not be large enough for an NFL team. Generally, NW uses 757's for their NFL sports charters -200's or -300's, depending on what is available. However teams are giving the option of upgrading to the DC-10 and for one game during the year they get the use of a 742 charter to bring along their families. Usually the longer flights (west coast, etc) is when the teams use their upgrade option.

NW used 727s for sport charters (I don't know if it was for NFL or other sport), but they used it for sport charters. Also Delta is using Boeing 737-800 ex Shuttle aircraft for sport charters, mostly for baseball players.

Rafal

I know that the Cowboys have used 757s flown by AA, since a friend of mine once worked a charter from ORD to DFW.

Back in the 80s, the University of Michigan used to charter UA DC-8s for away football games.

I also remember once hearing John Robinson, when he was coaching the Rams, say that they had about 4500 pounds of equipment to take to an away game, but that if they expected brutally cold weather, the team would take an extra 1800 pounds of cold-weather gear.

Add in all of the bags for 45 players plus coaches, trainers, media, etc., and that winds up being a lot of stuff going into the cargo hold.

The more popular charters for college football teams these days are Planet Airways and Miami Air using 727's and 738's

NW in fact used 727 for NFL Charters. They lost one in the mid 70's that was being repositioned to pick up the Baltimore Colts. Same day or weekend that TWA lost a 727 around Dulles.

I was refering to the past few years in my post, I have no idea what occured over 20 years ago.

When the San Francisco 49ers came to play the Rams a few years ago they flew in on a UA 747-400. I assume the bigger jets are used to give the players space but also if you are a big football player and want to ride in style then you need a big plane to get you to and from games. Also I know for a fact that the planes are absolutely trashed after teams use them. They probably need to have a big plane so that they can walk around all the trash. However the food that they keep on board for the players is awesome. So if you are part of the cleanup crew you at least get some good leftovers.

I did the Detroit Lions charters for the 99/00 season. We used 757's most of the time. The 727's were for NBA/NHL, and possibly NCAA charters. Like PSU said, we used 757's for the NFL charters during the regular season, and usually upgraded to a widebody for the playoff and rival games with the Vikings or the Packers. The players liked the 5500 series aircraft because the seats bent over, so they could play cards. The seatbacks had thousands of dollars all over place. They were good at cleaning up the money by the end of the flight.

The Minnesota Vikings use NW 752's....................and yes NW 727's were used by some NFL teams b4 they were retired. NW actually kept 4 of them around after most of them were retired just for sports charters (mainly college football)

Mike @ MSP

Again, the 727's were not used for NFL sport charters in within the past few years. The special subfleet that remained after the 727's were pulled from pax service were for the NBA and NHL. They were specially configured in about 45 seats. Not enough for a college football team, and at the wrong time of the year at that. For the most part, NW doesn't do a whole lot of college football charters, except for bowl games and the U of Minn.

To put a timeline on PSU's point, the 727s were retired from revenue service in January 2003, also the end of the football season. The last 5 727s remained in the fleet until July 2003 which would have easily facilitated MLB and some late NHL flights.