As mentioned, the Delta MD-11s are a done deal. The following article was posted on the FedEx pilot website almost a month ago:
Delta Air Lines has agreed to sell eight mothballed jets to FedEx in a move likely to give the ailing airline a cash boost of more than $200 million.
Delta confirmed the planned sale after FedEx said Wednesday it plans to buy eight MD-11 passenger aircraft. Delta owns eight MD-11s that it hasn't used since last year.
"We've entered into an agreement for FedEx to purchase the remaining eight MD-11s," said Delta spokesman John Kennedy.
He declined to give more details.
BACK Aviation, a consulting firm that is not involved in the deal, said Delta's MD-11s are worth $240 million to $256 million but would likely sell at a discount.
The deal will give Delta some much-needed cash as it struggles to avoid a bankruptcy filing, said Michael Allen, chief operating officer at BACK Aviation. "They're working very hard to get through this," he said.
Delta, which has lost $5.6 billion since 2000, has warned that it faces bankruptcy if it can't quickly rein in high costs and reduce $20 billion in debt and long-term lease obligations.
Absent the effect of the airplane sale, Delta's falling cash reserves are expected to drop below $1.5 billion sometime this fall. Analysts say that is a possible trigger point for a Chapter 11 case.
Delta grounded all its MD-11s last year, and the eight being sold have been parked at a desert airport near Phoenix.
Market values for MD-11s plunged after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, partly because they are no longer manufactured and never became a widely used aircraft. Delta bought its MD-11s when the model hit the market in the early 1990s.
"It's kind of an oddball in the fleet" for most carriers, said BACK Aviation's Gueric Dechavanne.
The exception is FedEx, which has the world's largest fleet of MD-11s. The Memphis-based delivery giant has bought many MD-11s for conversion to its cargo fleet. With 42 of the aircraft, FedEx owns more than 20 percent of all MD-11s in use, according to BACK Aviation. Cargo rival UPS has 13 of the planes, the consulting firm said.
Separately on Thursday, a former Delta affiliate that has since become a discount rival said it will excercise a contract right requiring Delta to take up lease payments on 30 regional jets that it formerly flew for Delta.
Delta previously estimated that it may have to pay $300 million over 13 years for the leases.
The parent company of Independence Air said in a regulatory filing that it will require Delta to assume leases on 30 Fairchild Dornier regional jets.
The company, previously called Atlantic Coast Airlines, flew the jets as part of Delta's regional carrier operation, but Delta terminated the contract earlier this year when ACA re-launched itself as a discount carrier based at Washington's Dulles Airport.
Russell Grantham
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
09/24/2004