Flight Friday: The MD-80 "Mad Dogs" Struggle For Survival Post-COVID

After the delivery heights in 1991 of almost 140 aircraft in a calendar year, the MD-80 delivery numbers began to tail off, and McDonnell Douglas started looking at further upgrades of the platform, developing the MD-90, with deliveries beginning in 1995.

This was later followed by the Boeing 717 which was the successor of the MD-90 after the McDonnell Douglas and Boeing merger in 1997.

Fast forward three decades to today, and there are still some “Mad Dogs” (the nickname given to the MD-80 series) plying their trade worldwide.

The MD-80 was hit hard by COVID, with total global utilization of around 190,000 flights in 2019, down to a little over 35,000 in 2024, a drop of over 80%.

The in-service fleet has dropped from more than 150 aircraft to around 100 today.

Before 2020, Delta Air Lines operated almost a third of its fleet with 47 MD-80s in service. However, due to cost-cutting measures, these older, more fuel-thirsty aircraft were removed from service to keep the airline lean.

As a side note, Delta also removed the MD-90 from its fleet, but did keep a few 717s going, which are due to retire by the end of 2025.

Mexican cargo charter carrier Aeronaves TSM is today’s largest operator of the type with 15 in service carrying air freight. However, the “Mad Dogs” are also finding their way to Iranian operators. Iran has more than 40 “in-service,” because of the aircraft’s “availability” on the market and Iran’s ability to maintain the aircraft even with sanctions.

This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization database.