The last Mad Dog: the MD-95 becomes the 717

The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is one of the most important commercial aircraft in history, and it continues to operate in some countries around the world, mainly in the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East. We recently published a post on our blog about the history and current activity of the MD-80 in the United States, which you can read by clicking here.

In early 1990, McDonnell Douglas, with the aim of entering the 100-seat aircraft market, began to consider producing an aircraft to compete with other aircraft manufacturers, originally named the MD-87-105, with 105 referring to the number of seats on the aircraft. At the 1991 Paris Air Show, McDonnell Douglas announced the development of a new aircraft, the MD-95, configured for 105 passengers. 

McDonnell Douglas received the first order for the MD-95 in October 1995 from the new US low-cost carrier ValuJet Airlines, with 50 firm orders and an option for 50 more. The airline had commenced operations on October 26th, 1992, and ceased flights on November 17th, 1997, when it was acquired by AirTran Airways.

Three months earlier, in August of that year, Boeing confirmed its acquisition of McDonnell Douglas, resulting in the McDonnell Douglas MD-95 being renamed as the Boeing 717.

ValuJet Airlines never operated the Boeing 717, as AirTran Airways was the launch customer for the aircraft. The first test flight of the 717 took place on September 2nd, 1998, receiving its operator’s certificate on September 1st, 1999, and shortly thereafter the first aircraft was delivered to AirTran, which entered service in October 1999.

During the early years, Boeing successfully attracted interest from airlines in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Oceania to incorporate the new 717-200. Trans World Airlines (TWA) had ordered 50 Boeing 717s in 1998, with an option for an additional 50, while other airlines were placing smaller orders. However, in January 2005, due to low sales, Boeing announced that it would end production of the 717 once all current orders had been fulfilled.

AirTran Airways was the launch customer and also the final customer for the Boeing 717. In May 2006, the airline received its last Boeing 717-200, registered as N939AT. All 156 Boeing 717s were produced in Long Beach, making it the last aircraft produced by Boeing in Southern California.

In addition to AirTran Airways and Trans World Airlines (TWA), the following airlines also operated the Boeing 717:

Two Boeing 717-200 from AeBal (Spanair Link), whose full name in Spanish was Aerolíneas de Baleares, operated for Germanwings between October 2004 and March 2005. Their registries were EC-HNY and EC-HNZ.

Although it was neither the launch customer nor the final customer, Delta Air Lines has been the main operator of the Boeing 717 throughout its history, with 80 aircraft in operation at the time of publication and 104 aircraft having passed into its fleet since 2013.¿

In September 2010, Southwest Airlines announced the acquisition of AirTran Airways and AirTran Holdings for $1.4 billion. The agreement was finally closed on May 2nd, 2011, with the complete integration of AirTran into Southwest planned for 2015.

AirTran Airways operated code-share flights with Southwest for the next four years, until it operated its last flight on December 28th, 2014, which was flight 1 between Atlanta and Tampa, operated by the Boeing 717 with registration number N717JL. The route and flight were chosen in tribute to ValuJet, as they used the callsign “Critter.”

Southwest Airlines planned to incorporate all of AirTran’s Boeing 737-700s, around 50 at the time of acquisition, but not the Boeing 717-200s, nearly 90 in September 2010. 

On July 9th, 2012, Southwest Airlines, along with its subsidiary AirTran Airways, announced that it had reached an agreement with Delta Air Lines to lease or sublease all of its Boeing 717-200 aircraft starting in 2013. Prior to joining Delta, the aircraft would be reconfigured with Delta cabins, and deliveries began in September of that year. 

The first Boeing 717-200 incorporated by Delta Air Lines had the registration N935AT. At that time, it was 13 years old and had previously been operated by Trans World Airlines (TWA), American Airlines, and AirTran Airways.

Hawaiian Airlines placed a firm order in September 1999 for 13 Boeing 717-200s and seven additional aircraft, with delivery of the first scheduled for February 2001, which eventually occurred.

On February 28th, 2001, Hawaiian Airlines added its first Boeing 717-22A, registered as N475HA. The airline acquired 14 more Boeing 717s throughout the year, operating these until 2008, when it introduced three more 717s to its fleet. Between 2011 and 2017, Hawaiian added another five 717s, all of which were formerly operated by Midwest Airlines, with some of them having been part of Mexicana de Aviación or Volotea.

99 Boeing 717-200s are operational at the time of publication, all of them based in the United States. 80 are part of Delta Air Lines and the remaining 19 belong to the Alaska Airlines Group, operated by Hawaiian Airlines.

According to our database, these are the Boeing 717s currently operating worldwide, with Delta Air Lines (DL/DAL) and Hawaiian Airlines (AS/ASA) being the carriers.

With regard to current routes, Atlanta, Detroit, and Minneapolis are the bases for Delta Air Lines’ Boeing 717-200s, with Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport being the main base in terms of the number of flights. Hawaiian offers seven routes with its Boeing 717s in Hawai’i, operating to/from Honolulu, Hito, Kāhului, Kōna, and Līhue.

Featured photo: © Josh Rawlin – JetPhotos (Dallas/Fort Worth Int’l Airport – KDFW)