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Delta to Lease Southwest/AirTran B717s
The Wall Street Journal has reported that a tentative agreement has been reached between Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines for the lease of 88 Boeing 717s currently operating for Southwest's AirTran subsidiary. (online.wsj.com) Mais...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
Its great to see them going somewhere other than an Arizona boneyard. I will be sorry to see the 5 sports team painted planes go though, but they probably would eventually under Southwest too. I kind of was looking forward to seeing what a 717 would look like in Southwest colors.
What's sad is that these are great planes. DL is still flying ex NW DC9-50's. Had NW been persuaded to buy the 717, a number of years ago, the line might have stayed open. I'm not a pilot, but I'll bet the dispatach reliability of the 717 is pretty good.
I totally agree....Boeing was too busy wrangling it out with Airbus and the A320s trying to sell 737s than to put some effort into a deal with Northwest that could have resulted in a HUGE fleet of replacement aircraft for their DC9s...
The switch over from the DC9 to the 717 would have minimal, I am assuming....
The switch over from the DC9 to the 717 would have minimal, I am assuming....
The 717 was born at a bad time. Boeing didn't merge with MD to market their planes for them and the 717 just got lost along the way. If the market was a little different, I don't doubt there would have been variants that directly succeeded the MD-80s and competed with the other mainline jets on the market.
The B717 (previously known as the MD-95) was carried over during the merger. The MD-80/90 and MD-11 were agreed to end as part of the merger too. MDC's CEO Harry Stonecipher was an advocate of the MD-95. After the merger, Stonecipher became President of The Boeing Company and Phil Condit was Boeing's CEO at the time of merger. Stonecipher was very persuasive and the MD-95 became the B717. Even the long standing logo from Douglas Aircraft company continued to be the Boeing logo.
Your right Jack about it being born at a bad time. It conflicted with the existing Boeing product line (B737s) and Boeing marketing never pushed it. Several B717 pilots I have heard like the B717 flying and handling characteristics.
Your right Jack about it being born at a bad time. It conflicted with the existing Boeing product line (B737s) and Boeing marketing never pushed it. Several B717 pilots I have heard like the B717 flying and handling characteristics.
Well at least the 717s wont be going to some 3rd world airline and end up killing people because of shoddy maintenance...