PAWA Dominicana to acquire twenty Delta DC 9-50s

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Latino2002

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Suerte flying this old aircraft.

PAWA Dominicana (7Y, Santo Domingo Las Am?ricas) is to reportedly acquire twenty DC-9-50s from Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) following the US carrier's recent decision to phase out the type from revenue service. According to informed sources, the Dominican startup also plans to use two ex-Northwest Airlines (NW, Minneapolis/St. Paul) DC-9-30s, HI-869 (msn 47566) & HI-876 (msn 47046), and a single ex-American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) MD-82, HI-914 (msn 49476), all of which are currently in storage at Santo Domingo Las Am?ricas. PAWA Dominicana plans to resume operations later this year and is a sister carrier of Venuezuela's Aserca Airlines (R7, Caracas Sim?n Bolivar).
 
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the gorgon

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Latino2002 said:
Suerte flying this old aircraft.

PAWA Dominicana (7Y, Santo Domingo Las Am?ricas) is to reportedly acquire twenty DC-9-50s from Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) following the US carrier's recent decision to phase out the type from revenue service. According to informed sources, the Dominican startup also plans to use two ex-Northwest Airlines (NW, Minneapolis/St. Paul) DC-9-30s, HI-869 (msn 47566) & HI-876 (msn 47046), and a single ex-American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) MD-82, HI-914 (msn 49476), all of which are currently in storage at Santo Domingo Las Am?ricas. PAWA Dominicana plans to resume operations later this year and is a sister carrier of Venuezuela's Aserca Airlines (R7, Caracas Sim?n Bolivar).
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and i used to laugh at Cubana with the old Ilyushin IL62. this has to be a joke. a bad one.
 
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deezee

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This plane is actually a very good and dependable plane. I do not consider it a joke at all. Look how many years a DC 3 was used by smaller countries and I would fly in A DC3 any day. except for the lack of AC. the last one I flew in had canvas seats and it was a small commuter flight in south Carolina. The DC 9 is a good plane. I would not knock it. It ranks high in planes
 
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wrecksum

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DC-9 is a tough bird and very capable. The only reason to stop flying them probably is because they are thirsty beasts compared with modern planes.
Spares will be getting scarcer as well.
An aircraft's age is far less important than its maintenance history and as these were airline planes, they should be in reasonable condition and I wouldn't hesitate to fly on one, depending upon who is driving and where it's been serviced.
I can't see them needing 20 planes . Maybe some will be broken up for spares. (Yes, that does happen in the aviation world. !)

I've flown planes far older than these, including a DC3 (or C47,gifted by JFK to Mobutu of Zaire) made in 1937, my first plane was a Luscombe made in 1947, and fitness to fly is all down to maintenance....


The IL 62 was a poor copy of the VC 10, made from left-over Volga tractor bits I reckon........
 
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rubio_higuey

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Not just maintenance, but also the block hours flown, and most importantly, the departures/landings it did. There is only a certain number of aircraft movements that the structural integrity of the fuselage can support.
 
beeza

beeza

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I will be seeing the son of the President of PAWA tomorrow. He is also the director of maintenance. Let's get it straight from the horses mouth.
 
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wrecksum

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rubio_higuey said:
Not just maintenance, but also the block hours flown, and most importantly, the departures/landings it did. There is only a certain number of aircraft movements that the structural integrity of the fuselage can support.
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There are finite cycle/flight time limits but these are unlikely to be achieved before obsolescence. They also vary from one aviation authority to another.
 
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rubio_higuey

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I don't know why they did not beef up their budget and buy at least 20-23-year old MD-80s. They can be had for as low as 4 million greens cash, each. Much less cycle time, lower age, and they could well fly them for the next 10 years. Allegiant Air in USA is doing the same and racking up huge profits by flying those cheap birds.

Bud DC9, no way!
 
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wrecksum

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rubio_higuey said:
I don't know why they did not beef up their budget and buy at least 20-23-year old MD-80s. They can be had for as low as 4 million greens cash, each. Much less cycle time, lower age, and they could well fly them for the next 10 years. Allegiant Air in USA is doing the same and racking up huge profits by flying those cheap birds.

Bud DC9, no way!
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Wimp!
Where's your sense of adventure???>
 
beeza

beeza

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So here's the lowdown straight from the horse's mouth.

PAWA do have options on 7 ex Delta DC9-50 aircraft. There are a few hurdles to overcome for them to pull this off.

Firstly, the acquisition of these aircraft is fairly cheap, however the issue is obtaining affordable low time engines to power them. If they can be found at a workable price then the project will advance to the next stage.

The person bankrolling this project is Simeon Garcia. A Venezuelan who owns two Venezuelan airlines, Santa Barbara and Aserca. He has seen the writing on the wall for Venezuelan aviation as a private enterprise. The Government are pushing to create a state backed airline that will put the privateers out of business.

The idea is to connect Venezuela with the US, using Santo Domingo as the hub and headquarter, employing the current business model used by Santa Barbara. If the operation can be based upon purchasing the bulk of fuel from Venezuela and not the DR, then it has a good chance of success.

So watch this space!
 
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Castle

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Not long ago I watched some documental on which they said old aircrafts like DC9 and 727s had already reached their service time and airframe fatigue could result if they continued in daily service much longer. It made sense to me. You can replace everything in an aircraft except the airframe. Some of these aircrafts are over 40 years old.
 
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the gorgon

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beeza said:
So here's the lowdown straight from the horse's mouth.

PAWA do have options on 7 ex Delta DC9-50 aircraft. There are a few hurdles to overcome for them to pull this off.

Firstly, the acquisition of these aircraft is fairly cheap, however the issue is obtaining affordable low time engines to power them. If they can be found at a workable price then the project will advance to the next stage.

The person bankrolling this project is Simeon Garcia. A Venezuelan who owns two Venezuelan airlines, Santa Barbara and Aserca. He has seen the writing on the wall for Venezuelan aviation as a private enterprise. The Government are pushing to create a state backed airline that will put the privateers out of business.

The idea is to connect Venezuela with the US, using Santo Domingo as the hub and headquarter, employing the current business model used by Santa Barbara. If the operation can be based upon purchasing the bulk of fuel from Venezuela and not the DR, then it has a good chance of success.

So watch this space!
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nice work!
 
beeza

beeza

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Commercial aircraft have a finite life put on the airframe by the manufacturer. But that can be extended provided the maintenance has been conducted correctly and various NDT tests are done to check for fatigue.

A case in point is Condor the German airline. Most of their Boeing 767s are approaching 100,000 airframe hours, which could have been the end of their commercial lives. Boeing have just granted them a 50,000 hour extension!

I'm sure that ex Delta aircraft will also meet that criteria for a manufacturer backed extension.

It's all about economics. Modern day airliners are very rarely owned by the operators, they are leased on a mortgage. I found out yesterday that the TUI group pay $880,000 per month to lease their brand new B787s! That's 10 million dollars a year! That will BUY you a lot of used older aircraft.

So you buy 7 older aircraft. You fly four or five and you keep the others on the ground for spares.
 
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rubio_higuey

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Md 80s can be had for 4 million bucks each. A dc 9 could be had for 2 million probably. But they need engines... they cannot just buy CFM engines for a320 and put them up on dc9.

and rather more important than airframe hours are the cycle times, it is during takeoff and landing that most pressure is being put on the frame.
 
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rubio_higuey

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100 000 flight hours on a 767 is nothing... that is like 18.5 years with 16 hour per day utilization and accounting even for c and d checks. .. ... no age
 
Luperon

Luperon

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Castle said:
Not long ago I watched some documental on which they said old aircrafts like DC9 and 727s had already reached their service time and airframe fatigue could result if they continued in daily service much longer. It made sense to me. You can replace everything in an aircraft except the airframe. Some of these aircrafts are over 40 years old.
Click to expand...

Might be one reasons AA got out (mostly) of the DR, their DR fleet was old. The planes smelled like mold and creaked like a haunted house.
 
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rubio_higuey

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880.000 per month for a 787 seems even quite low, lease price is usually 1 percent per month of the market value. It would be more revealing if one was to know what is the maintenance arrangement for the plane between tui and the lessor.... and yes i have seen that 787 last week in PUJ in jetairfly colors
 
Xavier_Onassis

Xavier_Onassis

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There are still DC-3's built in the mid-forties in service in the backwoods of Colombia and Peru. Some are over 70 years old.
 
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