Northwest's Orphan Mad Dogs

Deregulation brought incredible turbulence to the previously rather placid US airline system and this was only mad worse by the PATCO strike of 1981 and economic downturns. This led to many airline failures and consolidation, which in turn led to airline's operating aircraft they didn't really care much about and which formed orphan sub-fleets. The small force of Northwest Airlines MD-82s was one such example, but one that saw surprisingly long service with its new owner regardless of the airline's disinterest in it.

Northwest Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-82 N314RC by Phoenix Models 1:400 Scale

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Northwest Airlines eventually operated 9 McDonnell Douglas MD-82s, although only 8 at any one time for a reason that will become obvious. They were inherited in the October 1986 takeover of Republic Airlines, but that is only part of their story. Incidentally if you're interested in Republic I have covered the airline in some detail here at the blog previously:

Republic Airlines Pt1: 1979-1984 Bigger Is Better?

Republic Airlines Pt2: 1984-1986 - Wolf to Northwest

One of Republic's predecessor's Southern Airways (the airline that North Central tookover with the merged entity renamed Republic) had shown interest in the DC-9 Super 80 before. Southern had ordered 4 Super 80s, with 2 further options, in October 1977, but on June 8, 1978 it was forced to cancel the order and replace it with DC-9-30s because it's pilot union, ALPA, refused to fly the Super 80s without a third cockpit crew member.

I've seen it reported that it was Southern's Super 80 order that led to Republic taking delivery of the type, but that isn't true - the two events are unrelated. In fact, even the 4 replacement series 30s weren't delivered as the order was switched and added to an earlier North Central order to instead lease 8 DC-9-50s.

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Nonetheless, the new Republic - formed in July 1979, was clearly a massive fan of the DC-9 series as both Southern and North Central had been stalwart Diesel Nine operators and both had large fleets of the type. Even so, North Central had ordered Boeing 727-200s for its premium routes and the first of the trijets arrived in February 1980. It is a little curious that therefore Republic ordered DC-9 Super 80s too, but in the immediate aftermath of the merger the airline was in a growth phase, still making profits and needed new aircraft quickly. The DC-9-80 was not exactly flying off the shelves so presumably McDonnell Douglas could offer both good terms and early delivery slots.

Jon Proctor (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2 ), via Wikimedia Commons

Republic ordered 14 DC-9 Super 80s (renamed MD-82s by the time they were delivered), but also unwisely tookover Hughes Airwest. Airwest, as the name explains, had a large West Coast network almost totally separate from Republic's Eastern one, but came with huge debts and operational inefficiencies. Airwest had also been offered the DC-9 Super 80, but couldn't afford new aircraft. The Airwest merger almost killed Republic and it was forced to slim down its MD-80 order from 14 frames to 8 prior to the first aircraft's delivery in August 1981. This led to an out of sequence registration scheme:

Northwest Orient, as it was called prior to the Republic takeover, never seems to have been interested in the MD-80 at all. In fact, they had been in discussions with Boeing for 737-300/400s during the phase when the Republic negotiations were ongoing. Northwest clearly saw that it would need a lot more smaller aircraft if it was to succeed with its Republic takeover plans and create a trio of fortress hubs. With Boeing not interested in meeting Northwest's pricing needs the airline went to Airbus, that had just launched the A320. They were a lot more willing to work with Northwest and offered them a win-win situation whereby they'd be able to buy 100 at the unit price discount that garnered, but would only have to acquire ten if the plane didn't work out. Of course it did, and the rest is history, but it meant there was no room for the MD-80.

G B_NZ, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

When Northwest tookover Republic in October 1986 they acquired a massive DC-9 fleet, but also the 8 MD-82s Republic had taken delivery of. Being substantially different to the older DC-9s they were immediately orphans in the fleet, however they were nearly new, modern and Northwest needed aircraft.

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The story could have been very different as not long after the Republic acquisition one of the MD-82s, N312MC, was written off in a highly publicised and devastating crash at Detroit. All six crew and 148 of 149 passengers onboard were killed, as well as two people on the ground. For more on flight 255 see the Wikipedia page:

Northwest Flight 255

The crash could have easily seen the end of the MD-80 in Northwest service, but it wasn't the aircraft at fault and in fact Northwest went to the trouble to replace the lost frame. In November they leased N931MC (ad ex-Muse, Transtar and Continental frame) to bring the fleet back up to 8.

The MD-82s served a role in the Northwest fleet that would be similar to that the A320s would play as they came online. They flew high density mid-range routes such as MSP-ATL and longer West Coast services such as ONT-MSP and SMF-MSP, especially where aircraft with a lower noise footprint were required.

Aero Icarus from Zürich, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

They don't appear to have been particularly popular with staff, mainly because they never had their 1980s style interiors modified, Unlike the large DC-9 fleet, with only 8 aircraft it didn't make sense to upgrade them. In 1990 the MD-80s were flying the following routes:

​MSP to: BOS, ORD, CMH, DEN, GRR, MIA, MKE, SFO, TPA, DCA, MEM
MEM to: MSP, DCA
DTW to: ORD, MSN

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As the A320 fleet continued to grow the need for the MD-82s diminished, however they continued in service until the end of the decade. The fleet was retired between September 1999 and October 30, 1999. Perhaps in a sign of their condition, none of the aircraft saw subsequent service and all were broken up. Despite not being an aircraft Northwest particularly wanted the MD-82s clearly served a niche, even if it was one Northwest would have rather had its new A320s on.

References

2009. Lost Schemes: #109 Southern Airways DC-9-80. Airliner Cafe.com
​2004. Northwest MD-80s, Airliners.net
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