American Air says goodbye to MD-80 jetliner after 36 years

Bloomberg

Julio Gomez has flown the MD-80 for his entire 20-year career at American Airlines. But he can’t bring himself to make that final trip into the New Mexico desert.
“I just cannot take that airplane to its grave,” Gomez, 52, said of the iconic jets’ retirement flights. “It’s just too heartbreaking.”
The retirements mark the end of an era at American for the workhorse known as the Super 80, whose old-school design and noisy rear engines spawned a love-hate relationship among industry employees over the four decades it flew. The plane once provided the backbone of American, powering the carrier’s expansion through the end of last century on bread-and-butter routes such as Chicago to New York or Dallas to St. Louis.
The jet “basically was American Airlines,” Gomez said. At its 2002 peak, 362 of the MD-80 aircraft made up 44 percent of the carrier’s fleet. “If American kept the Super 80 until I’m 65, I’d be flying it,” Gomez said.
The single-aisle jet could be challenging to fly, but it sharpened pilots’ skills and earned the loyalty of pilots like Gomez, who relished having more control over every aspect of the plane.
Airlines now have moved on to models with better fuel efficiency, additional seats and the latest technology, including a more computerised cockpit. The routes dominated by the MD-80s have been taken over by newer versions of jet families such as the Boeing Co 737 and Airbus SE’s A320.
After 36 years, American operated the last commercial trip of the MD-80, flying from Dallas to Chicago last week. It’s Flight 80.
American will ferry the last 24 of its MD-80 jets to a desert parking lot in Roswell, New Mexico. Two more will be donated to flight-training schools.
Delta Air Lines Inc continues flying some MD-88s and MD-90s, later vintages of the model.
But it was the original MD-80, dubbed “Mad Dog” by pilots, that once seized the industry’s imagination when it was introduced by McDonnell Douglas Corp. In March 1984, American placed what was then the largest-ever order for commercial aircraft, for 67 MD-80s with options to buy 100 more.
The fleet got another boost when American acquired Trans World Airlines and its 104 MD-80s in 2001.