Talk about a workhorse of an airplane.
On Friday, Delta finally retired the last of its 737-200 aircraft. You might remember those as being the ones with the really long cigar-shaped, Pratt & Whitney engines that were much louder than the newer versions. I’ll certainly miss that plane.
There were three flights on Friday, all into Atlanta, before the birds were sent on their way to collect dust in the desert. The first two were from Providence and Dallas/Ft Worth to Atlanta. The last flight was Delta 910 from Oklahoma City to Atlanta. That flight was supposed to arrive at 1039a, but it ran about 2 hours late.
This picture is how I like to remember the plane with Delta, though it had many other colors.
The 737-200 formed the backbone of Delta’s failed Delta Express low cost operation. Once that airline was folded back into Delta, the aircraft returned to operate as part of the regular Delta fleet. The last examples flying were in the new Delta colors, not the striking ones seen here.
With Southwest and America West retiring the 737-200 last year, that leaves only Aloha Airlines flying the aircraft domestically. Those operate only on interisland flights in Hawai’i. It’s unclear when Aloha will replace those airplanes, but it can’t be too far off. Try and take a trip to Hawai’i so you can get on one of the last 737-200s flying domestically before they’re relegated to the fleets of Latin and African carriers.