Age concerns ground many flights
American Airlines announced the cancellations Wednesday morning of approximately 200 flights, all involving large MD-80 jets. Each craft holds some 170 passengers, meaning that travel was interrupted for tens of thousands of people across the country.
American Airlines uses 300 MD-80 planes, which are on average 18 years old. The oldest MD-80 still used began flying for the company in 1983.
According to a report in the Dallas Morning News Wednesday, these are not even the oldest craft in the fleet. AA also operates a fleet of Boeing 767-200s that are on average 21 years old, as well as 18-year-old Airbus A300s.
The machinery of the entire airline industry is worrisomely old. The Morning News noted that American Airlines operates the second-oldest fleet among the top US carriers, behind Northwest Airlines. In a cost-cutting restructuring scheme in the 1990s, Northwest expanded its fleet of Douglas DC-9 planes, which are on average 35 years old.
The decision to continue using aging aircraft is based solely on profit. The Morning News quoted a January statement by AA chief executive Gerard Arpey, who said that the company would wait until it was cost effective to replace the MD-80s with more fuel efficient planes. “We continue to be a little bit discouraged by the timing of the next-generation narrow-body airplane,” Arpey said, “which will probably push us in the direction of more 737-800s for MD-80 replacement than the next-generation airplane. But you’ll have to stay tuned on that.” At present, industry analysts project new narrow-body models will not come into production until 2017 to 2020.
Naomi Spencer
World Socialist Web Site
March 27, 2008
posted by Tom Nadeau at 3:04 AM
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