Originally Posted by
BoilerUP
You really can't be this naive.
Airlines don't give a damn about "aircraft desirability" to the public, they care about economics - acquisition cost and operating cost. MD80s are going bye-bye not because they are "undesired aircraft by the flying public", but because they are getting old & expensive to maintain and burn more fuel than newer aircraft with similar capacity.
See: Delta adding MD90s while shedding 50-seat CRJs.
See also: UniCal maintaining and growing their Q400 feed
Oh Boilerup...now who is being naive? You sound like AA's management who refused to see the writing on the wall throughout the 2000s.
The flying public is not as stupid as we think..in particular business travelers which are our key customers. They understand differences in aircraft and have a particular distaste for some of them (MD-80s, ATRs, etc..)
They WILL avoid flying on them whenever possible. If your airline is flying around in old MD-80s while your competition has newer, more comfortable A320s and 737s you will lose customers.
Just ask AA. They refused to accept this for years (among other things) and now it has all come back to bite them.