OVERVIEW
MANAGEMENT
PERFORMANCE
POSSIBILITIES
CAPITALS
ACTIVITIES
ACTORS
BURGESS
|
AIRCRAFT
MD-11 Why is the MD-11 only popular as a freighter but not as a passenger plane? 
Original article: Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | ||
|
Why is the MD-11 only popular as a freighter but not as a passenger plane?
Written by Jaiden W. Troxel · Updated Aug 21. 2022 3 Engines. The MD-11’s trijet configuration rendered it dead on arrival. ETOPS rules had been updated 5 years ago, allowing twin-engine widebodies to fly trans-Atlantic routes. Prior to this update, earlier trijets such as the DC-10 were used on Atlantic flights. The reason why trijets and quadjets have all but dissapeared from passenger flight boils down to simple economics: less engines = less fuel and less maintenance. Twin engine jets often have lower maximum takeoff weights, but the tradeoff isn’t worthwhile for passenger flight. Cargo, however, is a different story. The more stuff you can cram into the belly of a freighter jet, the more money you make per route. This made the MD-11 a perfect fit for cargo flight, as it's 3 engines gave it a high useful load. Thus, as MD-11 passenger customers such as KLM and China Eastern began to sell the jets off for flashy new A330s and 767s, cargo liners like FedEx swooped in and bought them up for dirt-cheap prices. The MD-11’s very low acquisition cost combined with it’s high takeoff weight made it a huge moneymaker for cargo liners. In fact, almost all operating MD-11s today are owned by FedEx and UPS. These cargo MD-11s will likely continue to operate until they become too expensive to maintain, in which case they will be scrapped.
| The text being discussed is available at | and |