50-seat planes being sent to scrap yards
Publisher’s note: It’s the 50-seat Bombardier jets that South Lake Tahoe officials have said would be perfect for Lake Tahoe Airport if commercial service were to return.
By Mary Jane Credeur and Mary Schlangenstein, Bloomberg News
The 50-seat jets once prized by carriers such as Delta Air Lines Inc. are being culled from U.S. fleets as higher fuel and maintenance bills make them too expensive to fly.
By 2015, U.S. airlines will have about 200 jets with 50 or fewer seats, down from about 1,200, said Michael Boyd, president of consultant Boyd Group International Inc. More than 80 have been scrapped this year, he said.
“These are litters of aluminum kittens – nobody wants them,” Boyd said. Their only value is for recycled metal, he said. “The next stop is the Budweiser factory because that’s all they’re good for.”
