MD-80: Why is this plane still flying?

Today, the jet is considered a fuel hog. Airlines that fly it have retrofitted the engines to comply with noise rules, but still suffer a 25% to 35% loss in fuel efficiency over newer midsize jets.

That's why operators such as Continental Airlines (CAL, news, msgs) and Northwest Airlines (NWA, news, msgs) have largely retired the jet in favor of Boeing 737s and Airbus 320s; American is slowly replacing it with new, larger versions of the 737.

As crude oil tops $112 per barrel, as it did this week, the MD-80's future is limited. Michael Boyd, president of aviation consultancy the Boyd Group, estimates that American would see an immediate savings of $650 million if it replaced all its MD-80s with the new 737s.

Still, American's MD-80 fleet age is only 18 years, relatively young in airplane terms, and the company owns most of the planes outright.

"It's problematic, but it's not like it's a dagger in their financial heart," says Boyd, who considers American's decision to keep the fleet a wise one until Boeing builds a carbon-fiber composite 737, as it is doing with the 787 Dreamliner.

The bigger question for fliers, of course, is whether the plane is safe.

Pilots and airline executives insist it is, and the wire-bundle-related cancellations have inflamed some of them. Those FAA critics believe the agency's new rigor is a bureaucratic, political knee-jerk response to well-publicized congressional hearings.

Those hearings were prompted by complaints from FAA inspectors that they were thwarted in doing their jobs by the agency's too-close relationship with airlines it regulates.

"Definitely a PR blitz for the FAA; notice how there haven't been any (mechanical) problems (or) groundings at any smaller carriers?" wrote a writer called "Flyby1206" who posted his comments this week at a Web site for airline pilots. A writer called "Oldfreightdawg" said his company had passed the wire-bundle inspections "except that the FAA inspector didn't like the orientation of the ties used to secure the wire bundle. They didn't match the pretty picture in his book. This is the equivalent of a cop pulling you over and busting a tail light with his night stick and citing you for it." The post added: "The FAA is doing some serious CYA in Texas, they're running for their bureaucratic lives and it doesn't matter who is run over."

An FAA spokeswoman said the flight cancellations are "purely a safety decision."

Arpey and other American officials have strenuously avoided any criticism of the FAA, citing complexity and different ways to interpret the detailed, 38-page airworthiness directive the agency issued about the wire bundles in September 2006.

The directive was written into an "engineering compliance order" by American's engineers for maintenance technicians to implement the repair. It is that process which has come under fire at American and is blamed by many pilots for the second MD-80 grounding, says Kevin Cornwell, an American MD-80 pilot from Keller, Texas. "In no way is this a line-mechanic problem. This is a management problem."

At American's news conference, Arpey said that interpreting an FAA airworthiness directive involves "a great deal of judgment" and that even FAA engineers can disagree about the proper method for certain repairs or changes.

After working so long with the MD-80s, some American pilots swear by them.

"I am surgically attached to it at the hip," jokes Cornwell, who became a Super80 captain in 1990. "It was and is very reliable and economical, and it's been a good airplane for us." He says some passengers grumble at the relative austerity -- there's no satellite TV, audio service or movies. "But when we hit 10,000 feet, I ding the bell . . . and I'm sure everybody turns on their laptops and they can watch their movies or work. I don't think it's a big deal."

This article was reported and written by Justin Bachman for BusinessWeek.

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