Not a good day for the MD80

Yesterday was not a good day for the MD80.

The tragedy of the Spanair accident in Madrid has yet to be determined. The impact of a potential grounding would still be pretty devastating across airlines and indeed whole countries if that was to be determined. However the detailed inspections of the US fleet during the early summer would have likely uncovered a specific endemic fault.

Next week the final Alaska Airlines MD80 makes its last revenue trip. Despite the accident caused by a jackscrew failure, the aircraft has done sterling service for Alaska. Now AS becomes an all pure Boeing fleet with only 737s - -400s, 700, 800, and 900s making exclusive aircraft.

The MD80 had an auspicious start at Douglas then was the first aircraft to bear the MDC combined name. Final version delivered from Long Beach was the re-named Boeing 717 aka MD95

Still AA and DL have a bunch of them left and of course Allegiant will be keeping them in the air for a while yet.

Cheers

Timothy