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Old, Fuel-Guzzling Jets Tax Northwest

Posted on: Monday, 29 August 2005, 06:00 CDT

Complicating matters for Northwest Airlines as it struggles through its mechanics' strike: The USA's No.4 carrier flies very old planes.

Northwest's planes average 18.2 years, by far the oldest fleet of any major U.S. airline, according to industry tracker Back Aviation Solutions. Its oldest planes are nearly 40 years old.

The older planes, designed and built in an era of cheap fuel, are deepening the carrier's financial troubles as oil prices soar toward $70 a barrel. And the older planes -- DC-9s, along with Boeing 747s and DC-10s used on international flights -- demand greater care at a time when 4,400 veteran mechanics and maintenance workers are off the job.

When well-maintained, old planes are as safe and reliable as new ones, says Ken Hylander, Northwest's vice president for safety and engineering. Outside experts back him up.

As the strike by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association enters its 10th day today, Northwest continues to operate with 1,500 replacement workers and with outside contractors doing more maintenance. The union struck rather than accept management's proposal to eliminate more than half the union's jobs and slash the pay of workers who remain. The union would bear $176 million in annual cost cuts. Northwest says it needs $1.1 billion in annual cuts to avoid bankruptcy.

According to Back, the DC-9s, which went out of production in 1982, make up a third of Northwest's active fleet of 418. Starting in 1965, the twin-engine, narrow-body DC-9 became an industry workhorse.

"Northwest has had one of the better records with that airplane," says aircraft expert Morten Beyer of Washington, D.C. "But today, fuel is a negative."

The DC-9s gulp 900 gallons of fuel an hour, while newer Boeing jets use 700 gallons an hour, he said.

Other U.S. passenger airlines have phased out DC-9s. But 10 years ago, Northwest extended the lives of its DC-9s through airframe, engine and interior modifications rather than buy new jets.

"It just made economic sense," Northwest's Hylander says.

Recently, Northwest has bought new Airbus A320s, which are cheaper to fuel and maintain. Northwest plans to park 30 DC-9s this year.

Meanwhile, the airline is focused on replacing its aging, gas-guzzling international fleet rather than the DC-9s, which fly shorter domestic routes.

"They keep chugging away for us," Hylander says.

Source: USA TODAY

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