boeing strike ,737 deliveries

[chris perry]

Boeings strike,whats your thoughts on the MD80'S RUNNING OUT OF TIME ON AIRFRAMES/Layoffs put on hold ?

 

[777 fixer]

Boeings strike,whats your thoughts on the MD80'S RUNNING OUT OF TIME ON AIRFRAMES/Layoffs put on hold ?

It might end up delaying deliveries but not to the point where it becomes a problem for AA. Look at all the DC-8's and DC-9's still flying around.

 

[delldude]

Would FAA grant an extension?

 

[Bobbie]

I may be stupid here, but I've seen a lot more of American's MD-80's doing medium-haul flights than in the past.

In Los Angeles, the MD-80's are always doing LAX-DFW and a lot of other longer routes as well. In San Diego, the MD-80 is almost all you fly out of there headed east, all the way to the plane's range limit. They're even doing LAX-ORD and LAX-STL on an MD-80...and several a day.

I think they're putting them on longer-haul flights to mitigate those problems, but that seems to be a trend among all the carriers and not just American. Continental is flying their 737-300's and 737-500's on longer flights and the 737-800s and 900s are doing more shorter haul, unless it's necessary for range or what not. I took a Continental 737-300 to Grand Cayman on a LAX-IAH-GCM run recently and that's across the Gulf of Mexico below Cuba, over three hours.

I don't think the strike is going to affect anything, especially with the airlines making cuts like crazy.

 

[FWAAA]

I may be stupid here, but I've seen a lot more of American's MD-80's doing medium-haul flights than in the past.

In Los Angeles, the MD-80's are always doing LAX-DFW and a lot of other longer routes as well. In San Diego, the MD-80 is almost all you fly out of there headed east, all the way to the plane's range limit. They're even doing LAX-ORD and LAX-STL on an MD-80...and several a day.

AA has flown MD-80s on routes like these since the mid-1980s, once AA had a critical mass of MD-80s and had retired many 707s and older 727s. In 1999, when AA took delivery of its first 738, it began to place 738s on these longer, business intensive routes. On September 11, 2001, AA had quite a few 738s on order to help replace the last of the 727s and to begin to replace MD-80s. Those orders were eventually shunted off to QF. In 2003, AA decided that it would focus the 737s in MIA and the MD-80s at DFW and ORD. That's when the MD-80s returned to the routes you mentioned above in large numbers. Thus, nearly every domestic MIA flight was a 738 or 757 while nearly every domestic ORD route was an MD-80 or 757.

The 738 made sense for MIA because of their overwater capability and thus they could fly many Caribbean and Central American routes that were not possible with MD-80s.

I think they're putting them on longer-haul flights to mitigate those problems, but that seems to be a trend among all the carriers and not just American. Continental is flying their 737-300's and 737-500's on longer flights and the 737-800s and 900s are doing more shorter haul, unless it's necessary for range or what not. I took a Continental 737-300 to Grand Cayman on a LAX-IAH-GCM run recently and that's across the Gulf of Mexico below Cuba, over three hours.

As mentioned above, the MD-80s returned to these longer routes in 2003, not recently and not because AA wanted to limit the MD-80's cycles. It had nothing to do with the number of cycles on the MD-80s and everything to do with fleet isolation which made the hub operations more efficient since there were fewer fleet types at each hub.

 

[Bobbie]

As mentioned above, the MD-80s returned to these longer routes in 2003, not recently and not because AA wanted to limit the MD-80's cycles.

That may be the case, but reduced cycles certainly are an added benefit of their fleet realignment.