The retirement of American Airlines' MD-80 marks the end of an era for a plane whose old-school design and noisy rear engines spawned love-hate relationships over the four decades it flew.

Workers prepare an American Airlines MD-80 for departure at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport this spring. American is phasing out its MD-80s and replacing them with the Airbus A321 and the ...

An American Airlines MD-80 was ferried to Roswell International Air Center in Roswell, New Mexico, on Wednesday, September 4, 2019. American is retiring the remainder of its MD-80 fleet, which ...

The eventual retirement of the MD-80 – long the backbone of American’s domestic fleet – will end an era for American. The carrier once had more than 370 “Super 80s,” as the airline ...

Julio Gomez has flown the MD-80 for his entire 20-year career at American Airlines. But he can’t bring himself to make that final trip into the New Mexico desert. “I just cannot take that ...

It’s the end of an era for American Airlines’ Super 80 planes. The carrier flew its last revenue flight of the classic McDonnell Douglas MD-80 on Wednesday.

Still, the originally unwanted, and mostly unloved MD-80 arguably saved two companies – American and McDonnell Douglas, though the aircraft maker eventually was bought by rival Boeing in 1997.

The MD-80, which entered service in 1980, became one of the most successful of the Douglas commercial jet programs. The last of 1,191 MD-80s was delivered to TWA in December 1999.

Alaska Airlines, which once flew 44 McDonnell Douglas MD-80s, parked the last of that fleet Thursday as it finishes its conversion to an all Boeing airline. The MD-80s were getting old, but the ...

However, you'd be surprised to learn that the MD-80 can still be found, albeit very rarely, in the US as a passenger aircraft, but only at a single airport: Miami International Airport (MIA).