At the peak it was definitely right around there.

No. Northwest did. I think Delta had about 90 at the merger.

I believe about 26 of the 34 dash50's are in service to be retired by the end of 2012 now.

Deleted. Asked and answered.

OK, so I'm trying to figure out the impact on staffing relative to some baseline. Last summer, it sure didn't feel like we were overstaffed. I think we only had the original 16 MD-90's flying, or maybe another 1-3 from Hello. How many DC-9's did we have then?

ftb,

It's been about a minute, already. Where's the graph and picture?

So it sounds like a small net increase in airframes.

39 md 90's - 36 dc-9 = 3 additional a/c

or am I missing something?

Where do you get the 36 from? I looked at archived Upront and PlaneTalk, but neither go past November 2009.

Delta Air Lines - Details and Fleet History - Planespotters.net Just Aviation

I have no idea how accurate it is

I completely agree that public sector (i.e. government) unions are different animal compared to private sector unions and it's time for them to feel the wrath of fiscal responsibility.

...But here's the thing. The average American doesn't understand the difference and makes no distinction between the two. To them, a union is a union. Frankly, I think the same can be said about your average new Teaparty congressman. If the collective bargaining rights of public sector unions start falling like dominoes in numerous states, I can guarantee you that the next time a major airline has a protracted contract squabble and some newspaper writes a silly story about how Grandma's summer plane trip to visit the grandkids is in jeopardy, there will be a public groundswell demanding to know why pilots have collective bargaining rights. With the right folks in power after the 2012 elections and numerous precedents set in multiple states, they'd take away those rights in a heartbeat.....and the Average Joe Public would cheer mightily.



...as for the MD90s, we still haven't seen a new one hit the line since last summer. I'll start cheering when I see ship #9220 actually flying