100 YEARS OF DELTA AIR LINES
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS MD-82 / MD-88 ( 1987-2020 )
Delta placed its initial order for 30 McDonnell Douglas MD-88s in January 1986 , and optioned 50 more . It received eight of the planes as model MD-82s , the forerunners to the MD-88s , between March and May 1987 . Delta modified them to MD- 88 configuration with a more advanced flight deck in 1988 . The MD-88s began arriving at Delta with Ship 909 ( N909DL ) in December 1987 . Delta put its first MD-88 in service on January 5 , 1988 . Deliveries continued until December 1993 . Delta retired its MD-88 and MD-90 aircraft on June 2 , 2020 , with the COVID-19 pandemic and its dramatic freeze on air travel accelerating the ‘ Mad Dog ’ fleet ’ s retirement schedule .
AERO ICARUS
AIRBUS A310 ( 1991-1995 )
DELTA FLIGHT MUSEUM
In 1991 , Delta acquired Pan Am ’ s sinking airline ’ s Shuttle , transatlantic routes , and hub operations at New York-JFK and Frankfurt , Germany , becoming a major provider of service across the Atlantic . The transaction included lease and purchase agreements for 45 aircraft , including 21 Airbus A310s — the first Airbus aircraft to join the Delta fleet . Delta didn ’ t fly the A310s for very long . During a difficult economic period , the airline had to reduce service on its new transatlantic routes and , in 1993 , it retired nine of the former Pan Am planes . It replaced them with new A310-300s leased from Airbus and returned the 12 remaining former Pan Am A310s to the manufacturer . Delta discarded the leased Airbus A310s in late 1995 , and replaced them with Boeing 767-300s .
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS MD-11 ( 1991-2004 )
Delta was the first US carrier to order the MD-11 . The initial order , in September 1988 , included nine MD-11s plus 31 on option . The airline initially leased two MD-11s . The first debuted on February 5 , 1991 : Atlanta to Dallas / Fort Worth , continuing to Orlando and Los Angeles . The next day , Delta introduced the trijet on Orlando-Los Angeles-Tokyo service . This was Delta ’ s first non-stop service to Asia from Los Angeles and the world ’ s first trans-Pacific flight with the MD- 11 . Delta ’ s MD-11s began arriving in early 1992 ; by March 1993 , Delta was the first carrier with an all-MD-11 transpacific fleet . However , the aircraft failed to meet its range expectations and Delta eventually phased out the last of its MD-11s on January 1 , 2004 , with a flight from Tokyo to Atlanta .
DELTA FLIGHT MUSEUM
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