Alaska Airlines announced today that it is speeding up the retirement of its seven remaining McDonnell Douglas MD-83s to August 25th instead of December as as originally planned. Sadly this means the MD-83s will disappear from the skies above Long Beach where they began thier flying carriers having been built at the DAC production facilities located here.
The carrier also announced that the retrofitting of 74 out of 116 737 "Next Generation" aircraft in its fleet with blended winglets has been completed and that all future "NG" deliveries will come with blended winglets. The winglets inprove fuel efficiency by approximately 5% and save the carrier some 100,000 gallons a year per aircraft.
Top photo: MD-83 N944AS (53019/1783) on short final to Rwy 30 at Long Beach (LGB) on May 20th, 2008. (Photo by Michael Carter)
Middle photo: MD-83 N975AS (53451/2083) rolling for takeoff bound for Seattle (SEA), Washington on June 13th, 2008 (Photo by Michael Carter)
Bottom photo: Boeing 737-790 N648AS (30662/1382) on short final to Rwy 14 at Ted Stevens International Airport (ANC), Alaska on May 5th, 2008. (Photo by Michael Carter)
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