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So you sad earlier that the reason the majors have MD-80s and MD90s is because they had them in the first place, right?
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I think you need to do some research, or maybe take a class on economics.
First of all, the MD-90 carries a lot more people than the 717, so it has a different role. See, when an airline has X amount of airplanes, when a better one comes out, they can't just drop them in a day and say we want these cause they are more fuel efficient. Airlines have so much money invested in their aircraft that they must keep them X amount of years to even have a chance at posting a profit.
One example would be Northwest and their DC 9's. They are the workhorse of their fleet, most of their airframes having 70,000 hours+ on them. But their 9's are getting old and they are slowly replacing them with the A320, which they feel is a better fit for their company and the roles that they have.
Not trying to be mean here Brian, but plese think before you type.