Delta enlists ‘Queen of the skies’ in Irma exodus

Bloomberg

Delta Air Lines Inc. celebrated the final domestic flight for its Boeing Co. 747 jumbo fleet with an overnight party from Los Angeles to Detroit recently. The farewells were a little premature, it turns out.
The carrier enlisted the iconic humpbacked jetliner to help whisk people away from Hurricane Irma, with a special round-trip flight from Detroit to Orlando, Florida. The effort was part of one of the biggest aircraft evacuations on record as the powerful storm bore down on the continental US.
Pulling a future “museum piece” into action was “thoughtful and creative,” said aviation consultant Robert Mann. “Someone must have said, ‘I know we just retired it, but we have this behemoth that we can use to fit in a few more people.’ ”
The evacuation flight marked one of the last hurrahs in the US for the venerable jumbo, nicknamed the Queen of the Skies, as Delta and United Airlines prepare to replace the planes with more efficient twin-engine models. While Delta has pulled the 747 off regularly scheduled domestic service, it plans to continue flying the four-engine aircraft on long-distance international flights through December, Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said.

Jumbo’s Flight
The Atlanta-based airline ordered up the 747 trip on short notice because flight crews were available along with ground equipment for the aircraft at the Orlando airport, Durrant said. The carrier has been adding last-minute flights to parts of Florida and the Caribbean, as have other airlines such as American Airlines Group and JetBlue Airways. The airline has another Boeing 747 ferrying customers from Atlanta to Detroit, said spokesman Michael Thomas. Both trips were previously scheduled flights for smaller mainline jets.
Flight 2517 lifted off from Detroit at 12:46 pm local time for the almost three-hour trip, its progress marked in real time on social media by aviation enthusiasts and flight-tracking sites such as Flightradar24. After a brief turnaround, the plane was airborne and headed back to Detroit with an expected arrival time of 7:18 pm. The aircraft is the largest in Delta’s fleet, with seating for 376 passengers.
It’s the second time a Delta evacuation flight has caused a social media stir. Delta isn’t the only US airline using soon-to-be-retired aircraft in storm rescue and recovery efforts. After Harvey, Southwest Airlines Co. flew dozens of cats and dogs from Texas to California in a Boeing 737-300. That was the second-to-last stop for the plane, which was headed to Victorville, California, a desert boneyard for aircraft.

All planes fly away from Irma
Bloomberg

One of the biggest evacuations of aircraft on record is taking shape as airlines and private aircraft owners are moving their planes, and themselves, out of Hurricane Irma’s path.
At least 500 aircraft scheduled for flights into or out of the state flew over the weekend depending on the storm’s direction, according to aviation consultant Mead & Hunt. As many as 210 planes that normally stay overnight in Florida would be those shuttled out, said Sam Engel, head of the aviation practice at consultant ICF.
More than 4,600 flights have been cancelled from September 1 at airports in Irma’s path, according to Flightaware.com, a tracking website. The number will increase as airlines begin to shut operations in such cities as Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Miami, a major hub for American Airlines Group. Three other carriers, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and JetBlue Airways, have also major operations in Fort Lauderdale. American Airlines cancelled 2,545 flights through September 11, but the carrier is making seven added flights to move people out of Miami before closing operations there. “This is a very substantial evacuation,” said Vik Krishnan, a consultant with Oliver Wyman. “When you think about South Florida, there are four major airlines with very large operations.”
Airlines typically cancel flights before major storms and move aircraft away so they aren’t stranded in closed airports or damaged by high winds, flying debris, collapsing facilities, or flood waters. The Irma displacements are “one of the biggest weather-related” movements, said Doug Blissit, an air services consultant for Mead & Hunt in Atlanta. Even the biggest planes can become toys in the hands of Mother
Nature’s wrath.