Boneyard MD-11's

Swiss will phase out their last MD-11 (HB-IWE) at the end of the summer timetable (It’s due to operate the ZRH-EWR route until then). The ones that LX have recently retired (with the arrival of the A340’s) have I believe mostly gone to Varig (and Varig’s have gone to LH for Cargo conversion… This is because the LX ones had PW engines, and LH Cargo’s were GE engined, as were RG’s. As LH have more clout within Star, LH managed to rig it so they kept engine commonality.)

I visited Mohave last November & there were 7 SWR MD11’s stored(HB-IWG,H,P,R,S,U,& N15WF), i think some of them have moved on now not sure how many though. On the same trip i also visited Goodyear, stored here were N274UP & N276UP of UPS, PP-VPN,O,& P of Varig, also 6 DAL N805DE,808DE,809DE,812DE,813DE, & 815DE.
At the moment there are 3 ex Alitalia MD11’s stored at CGN awaiting convertion by Boeing to freighter’s for Lufthansa Cargo who will become an all MD11 operator in the future.
N.B. The AZA MD11’s at CGN cannot be seen from the terminal they can be seen on arrival if you fly in.

Bad range, bad fuel burn. And also, the end of the Tri-jet era. Nothing went right for the MD-11.

Still, with those wings so far back, it makes an excellent cargo plane.

The much maligned sister of the ubiquitous DC10 never really lived up to expectations

At least Finnair and Martinair recently got new ones. Also I believe lufthansa cargo is on the lookout for them?

I know Delta are retiring their fleet of md11’s. I travelled on N803DE from MAN-ATL and I think that is now flying with World Airways.

Fokker100