Originally Posted by Planetrain (Post 2387775)

June 27, 2017 from flightglobal.com

"Delta Air Lines has pulled its first Boeing MD-90 from service, as it prepares to begin a three-year drawdown of its MD-88 fleet.

The aircraft (MSN 53382) was withdrawn from service on 23 June, Flight Fleets Analyzer shows and a spokesman for the Atlanta-based carrier confirms. The aircraft had 58,772 cycles and 31,998 hours at the end of 2016.

The MD-90 was one of the first two delivered to launch customer Delta on 24 March 1995, the database shows."

Originally Posted by crewdawg (Post 2387477)

Even more of a reason to get the 330/764 banded with the 777/350.

Originally Posted by FMGEC (Post 2387795)

Wait- What?!? So it AVERAGED a 1/2 hour flight leg? Am I reading that right?

Originally Posted by gzsg (Post 2387808)

If it has 2 aisles it should pay 777/350 rates. Like American and United.

C2019 is the perfect time to make this happen along with 5:15 vacation, training and min day.

Originally Posted by sailingfun (Post 2386953)

They bought the aircraft because the JV they hoped to set up with China was planned to end up with 15 to 16 flights a day on Delta metal to China modeled after the AMS hub. That JV has so far not worked out so the forcus has shifted to Korea. The A330-900 is 50 million cheaper than the A350. A350 orders are being cutback to only 15. The A330-900 will be the big fleet.

Originally Posted by n9810f (Post 2388009)

Sounds pretty ******* clumsy. This isn't Africa we're trying to work - it's only the #1 market in the world and we're 1) giving up our nook at Tokyo and 2) now onto another attempt to work with someone in Korean.

Originally Posted by qball (Post 2384062)

The cockpit will be referred to as the Thunder Dome

Originally Posted by sailingfun (Post 2388074)

We did not give up our nook in Tokyo, it is dead and buried by better aircraft and a very crafty move by the Japanese to open up Haneda to international flights. China has not worked out because our potential partner wants all the Pacific flying with us doing zero.
That was the same thing KAL wanted a few years back that led to a pullback in that relationship. Fortunently for us they bought a shipping company that is dragging them down and they came back to the table hat in hand.

Originally Posted by gzsg (Post 2388096)

Take the time to see who fills the routes we are abandoning in Narita.

Or do you think no airline will?

Clueless.

Originally Posted by sailingfun (Post 2388097)

If they are profitable why would we drop them? RA was anything but a fool when it came to route planning and as he stated many times each route needed to pull its weight. Next time you are in ATL for training walk over to the Marketing area and talk with the folks running Asia. I suspect you might find it enlighting and you might actually be surprised at how competent they actually are.