American Airlines is now gradually replacing its Mc Donnel Douglas MD-80 aircraft with new Boeing 737-800 Series. The new Boeing 737's equiped with winglets to save fuel were ordered in the early 2000's, in addition to the 77 units already in service, to replace the oldest MD-80's in service with the airline since 1984. The first 77 aircraft, the first of which was delivered in 1999, were ordered in 1996 to replace the last remaining Boeing 727-200's then still in service.
The two 737's delivered in April of 2009 will be followed by an additional 70 units in the next two years, which means that by 2011 American will have a fleet of over 150 Boeing 737's and fewer MD-80's will remain in the fleet, some of the latter were inherited from defunct TWA in the early 2000's. The Boeing 737-800 burns 25% less fuel than the MD-80.
American showed interest in the Next Generation Boeing 737 aircraft in 1996 when the then CEO Robert Crandall decided the company would eventually have an all Boeing fleet in the long run, Seattle aircraft manufacturer Boeing would then be the sole supplier of new aircraft to the company. The idea was to replace the last Boeing 727's which left the fleet in 2002 and eventually the MD-80's in the future. The last MD-80 will leave the fleet in the early 2020's, but I don't think that all 300 MD-80's will be replaced with 737's although the latter has a reduced fuel burn compared to its predecessor, what I think will happen next decade is this: by the time American takes delivery of all the 737's it still has on order, American will look at a newer model currently under study at Boeing, the 737RS or whatever new model will be available at that time, to replace the last MD-80's around the year 2020 or so. The MD-80 is already an obsolete aircraft but American still operates that aircraft on a lot of domestic flights.
I enjoy flying on the MD-80, especially when I am seated in the front rows near a window. It is a quiet aircraft and it rises quickly. The MD-80 fleet will eventually diminish in size in the new decade coming, the 2010's, but I am confident that I will still have plenty of opportunity to fly on those for another few years. I would rather choose to fly on that one instead of the new 737-800.
