I hope everyone enjoyed their time with family and friends this new years. Wow 2007. Well let's make 2007 just as good at 2006. Let's see if some of those merger rumors come true, if two airlines emerge from bankruptcy this year, and I can not wait to see what goes on in the industry this year.
With the new year comes the end of a legacy at Northwest Airlines. They will say bye to their last DC-10 jet on Monday. The final flight is scheduled to leave Honolulu Sunday and arrive in at Minneapolis-St. Paul early Monday morning. This lumbering sky barge of a plane was costing the airline too much money and was becoming too old for their fleet.
The DC-10 has been in service for Northwest since 1972. Its first flight went from the Twin Cities to Milwaukee and then to Tampa, Fla. A Northwest spokesman said the plane could do it all -- from flying to Asia to short-haul flights.
The three-pilot DC-10 is being phased out because its replacement, the new European-made Airbus, uses less fuel and requires a cockpit crew of only two. The Airbus A330 will replace services on the route. They have already been providing services on the Minneapolis-Amsterdam route for a while now.
I'm glad they are gone. That was one of the most uncomfortable planes I have been on. Now all NWA has to do is get rid of their DC-9s.
the DC-10s were some of the most wizened airliners still flying, but their retirement signals the end of an era of this generation of aircraft. though technology had brought us faster, quieter, more comfortable aircraft, i am sad to see such a workhorse disappear.
Posted by: jon | January 8, 2007 5:59 PM | Permalink to Comment