Northwest Airlines is famous for flying around planes that haven’t been built in decades. Their DC-9s and DC-10s may be classic, old-school aircraft, but the age is really starting to show.
The hardcore aviation insiders at IAG ran some numbers on Northwest’s fleet, and find that some of the oldest planes are causing some of the worst delays.
One single plane was responsible for 2564 minutes of delays alone, year to date.
This isn’t really a surprise, considering that the DC-9 hasn’t been built since October 1982, but the airline should really start looking at replacing these tired old birds.
Unfortunately, there’s no way for Northwest’s travelers to know which individual aircraft will be operating on their route, so you can’t avoid the worst planes. But you might try avoiding the DC-9s as a general rule, unless you’re into vintage aircraft. Or you’re into delays.
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September 18th, 2006 at 10:15 am
While this appears to be a telling statistic it is lacking some validity. What routes where these aircraft on? Did the author just use verified mechanical delays in the calculations or did the numbers include all delays? If it included all delays it is likely that some of the delay time can be attributed to weather. There needs to be more explaination of the numbers behind the findings!
As the author points out, Northwest is replacing its fleet, but they certainly don’t have the capital to buy a closer delivery date from Airbus. I’m suprised that they have the capital to purchase any new aircraft period.
January 22nd, 2007 at 11:16 am
[...] Dangerous flight: Plane aborts takeoff, skids off runway A Northwest DC-9 went off the runway in Milwaukee after pilots “discontinued takeoff” thanks to an engine problem. No one was hurt. An engine problem? On a Northwest DC-9? A plane that hasn’t been built since 1982, yet is still the workhorse of Northwest’s operation? Unheard of!… [...]
January 21st, 2009 at 3:07 pm
No, The ‘D’ stands for DOUGLAS.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Garry, the title is a joke…
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:09 pm
I know, Mine was a joke to…