Delta Will Promote Pilots to Captain—if They Can Fly This Aging Plane
A Delta MD-88 passenger jet at Tampa International Airport.
Photograph: Alamy
Since almost the beginning of the commercial airline business, junior pilots have had to toil years in the second chair waiting to win a pair of captain’s wings. Now Delta Air Lines Inc. is offering them the chance to vault into a captain’s seat in as little as six months. The catch? The promotion requires flying an unloved, aging plane nicknamed the “Mad Dog” that Delta plans to retire in three years.
The McDonnell Douglas Corp. MD-88 jets are the oldest aircraft in operation at any major U.S. carrier. They come with quirks such as glare-prone skylight panels called “eyebrow windows” that were common when pilots sometimes navigated by the stars. And they’re so noisy that some New York politicians, including U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, cheered when Delta recently pulled the planes from New York’s LaGuardia Airport.