Originally Posted by
Cruz5350
A DC9 is built a hell of a lot tougher than any RJ and IIRC Delta tore those thing down quite a bit and refurbished them to keep em going.
The 9s that NWA was pulling out of the desert were a mess, and breaking down all the time. But they were cheap. You could pull one out of the desert, update it, and put hushkits on it for around $12 million an airplane vs buying a new one for 30-35 million for the same number of seats.
You can do the same with these 145s and 200s in the desert too, its just a function of whether it is worth it vs a new 170 or 900.