FastHap

Article about conversions including the MD-80 in this months Air Cargo World magazine.

Air Cargo World - November 2012

Natca

To get this back on track...does anyone know who has slots 5 and above? Tsm has 3 and 4.... I have heard conversion 5 is rumored to be a "option" slot....any news?

MD90PIC

Well, where are you now? What equipment and how long ago did you fly for them?

AxialFlow

Convey explained that the only true competitor in the narrowbody cargo market–the slightly smaller Boeing 737-400–burns roughly 12 percent less fuel. However, he noted, the cost of ownership of the McDonnell Douglas product for low-utilization, unidirectional cargo operators, whose airplanes usually sit idle until pressed into service at the end of the daily manufacturing cycle, beats that of the Boeing by a substantial margin.

A 737-400 typically costs between $3.25 million and $4 million, while MD-80s sell for $750,000 to $800,000. A 737-400 conversion, which AEI also offers, itself costs $2.7 million to $2.8 million, compared with $2.35 million for the MD-82 it just finished.

Meanwhile, Convey said, maintenance costs run considerably less for the MD-80. All told, an operator can acquire an MD-80 freighter for less than $4 million, compared with $8 million to $9 million for a 737-400.

“When you add in the strength of the Douglas product versus the Boeing product, there are no lap-joint ADs, no window belt ADs, no chem-step ADs and all of the cracking issues you see on the 737-4s are not existent on [the MD-80],” said Convey. “It’s a pickup truck with wings.”

The verdict is in: The Douglas product makes more "cents" than the Boeing product

First MD-80 Freighter Set To Fly in U.S. | Aviation International News

BeaglePilot

Little did they tell you they recently did a test on the floor loading..... The floor loading capacity is less than the -9 if there is a fuel tank underneath.