Originally Posted by
Sailvi767
Delta has bought MD80’s, and 717’s for parts. They also picked up one 777. They have a strong maintenance department and manage to generate extremely high ontime rates and completion factors with older airframes. Average fleet age is over 16 years.
Flew on one as SLF last week that was 32 years old...probably older than some of it's pilots. That crew said retirement is now stated to be in the 2020's. As long as fuel is cheapish, they will keep using them on regional type routes. It's hard to say the Maddog isn't a workhorse.