MD11 Going Away
 

I can’t be the only one that’s heard this rumor that it will be announced the MD is going away at the quarterly earnings conference call on Tuesday. Anyone else hear that?

The root cause appears to be a faulty bearing, for which a corrected design is already available. So relatively cheap fix in the grand scheme of things.

That's not to say there aren't other factors, and this is just the final straw.

If it were that easy, we’d be hearing / seeing indications of the path going forward. Absolute radio silence is telling.

You are being a little simplistic here.
Root cause might be a faulty bearing, but Boeings own analysis obviously said it should have had a completely different fatigue pattern and failure mode (their own bulletin said failure of the bearing is not a safety of flight issue!), so it's obvious Boeings own data was not correct.
That will take a lot more correcting than just installing the new design bearing, as their data can't show that the new design is safe enough.

They have too much leverage with a “grounded fleet” to throw in the towel on MD this early. I’d say put this one in the same bucket as all of the other rumors over the last year.

I see it as the opposite. Announce its done and then it continues to be their playground for the indefinite future with no short term replacement other than subs, denied premiums, and straight up abuse.

They are LOVING this.

This is the kind of thing that would be dictated by Atlanta, and IF true, nobody who would know about it would talk about it. Odds aren't zero, but I personally place them low.

When does an emergency grounding no longer become an emergency? When the Company makes a business decision to outright and en masse retire a fleet they've repeatedly told us they are working toward getting flying again. Also, the Company is paying ~260 pilots to not work, they HATE that. Combine that with the cost of subcontracting 15 aircraft which likely isn't "cheap" right now, JA/extensions for everybody who is working, and an ever-increased ops tempo on other fleets causing more broken jets and I'm not sure they're saving any money whatsoever.

The Company needs to staff the 15-18 767 deliveries still remaining, the overwhelming majority of which happen this year. Worth noting future deliveries exceed the number of subcontracted aircraft.

Also, our esteemed SCP said in the pravda line a couple weeks ago how MD flying had been integrated into 2602 bid packets. Given that bid starts tomorrow, the MD grounding premium denial BS should in theory stop. No, I'm not naive or new here, but their own words will be used against them in a future Et Al arbitration.

We'll see what if anything gets announced on Tuesday.

Maybe the leak is coming from the Boeing side of the house, or FX? I otw agree, don’t see a strong probability for this coming to fruition. I really hope it does though…

Not from the FedEx side. Our nut job crew members with internet access are too busy spreading this rumor.

This. Why cut it off when it’s giving blanket authority to outsource with no end in sight.