McDonnell's last stand

摘要

When Swissair went bankrupt, the owners of MD-11s knew it was going to be a rough ride. It got tougher when Delta Air Lines withdrew the type from its fleet. But the aircraft's freight ability meant that it was likely that many MD-lls would not be parked for too long. In fact, the market is already slowly starting to turn. While 9% of the type is still parked, a number of lessors and aircraft funds have decided to buy passenger MD-11s and convert them to freight. The aircraft's increasing popularity can be seen best by focusing on the ex-Swissair aircraft. At the time of its bankruptcy in October 2001, the Swiss flag carrier operated 19 MD-lls, about 7% of the total fleet. Dutch bank ABN Amro owned 15, with the other four financed by a mixture of European banks. Although Swiss decided to keep some of the aircraft, it rejected leases on four of the ABN Amro aircraft and has gradually been phasing them out.