Originally Posted by
sailingfun
I am guessing you might be joking. Delta has long called the MD88 the accumulator fleet. They could be put in and out of service at virtually no cost and as such be used to quickly adjust capacity.
If you have a aircraft with a lease payment you still have to make that payment if you park it. If you lease a aircraft for 10 dollars a month to keep things simple would you park it or keep flying it even though it earns only 9 dollars a month. A dollar a month loss or a 10 dollar a month loss?
I'm not joking at all.
My family has two cars, one is paid off and the other has a payment. This has zero effect on my choice of what to drive on any given road trip. We choose the one that matches our needs for each trip. I would think Delta matches aircraft capability and operating cost to our routes.
I always hear this "conventional wisdom" about paid off jets being easier to temporarily park and honestly doing understand it. Delta's profitability by aircraft matters not (unless I'm missing something).
I'd buy parking 88s and 90s because they (being older) are more expensive to operate, but not simply because they are paid off. If anything, there could be a case for flying them extra (and temporarily parking leased jets) to squeeze any remaining life out of 88s and 90s before retiring them.