McDonnell Douglas MD-81
8,962 parts applicable to this airframe — narrowbody
Utilization & cargo trend(US carriers, 2015–2025)
MD-80 family rollup — BTS T-100, domestic + international
US carriers only (BTS T-100, domestic + international segments) — foreign-carrier flying is excluded, so global utilization runs higher. Fleet size is reconstructed from the FAA registry (built on or before each year, not yet deregistered) — an approximation. Freighter share counts departures with zero passengers and freight aboard — a proxy for freighter/combi operations, not a tail-by-tail conversion count. Missing years render as gaps.
USM supply — retirements & teardowns(2023–2026)
MD-80 family — FAA registry deregistrations
FAA registry data. Domestic deregistration is a teardown proxy — it also captures re-registrations and some unflagged exports, so it is not a confirmed part-out count; exported aircraft left the US fleet intact and are not USM supply. ATA shares reflect where this directory's parts for the family concentrate (parts in parentheses) — a coverage signal, not the aircraft's bill of materials or a teardown-yield forecast.
Engine-program supply pressure(since 2023)
FAA registry — US-registered fleet
Engines account for roughly half of all MRO spend, so engine programs shedding aircraft are where retirement supply carries the most value.
| Engine model | Active tails | Engine units | Retired since ’23 | Exported | Avg age at dereg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P & W JT8D series | 84 | 172 | 29 | 8 | 34.4 yr |
| P & W JT8D-219 | 22 | 44 | 4 | 0 | 34.5 yr |
| P & W JT8D-9 series | 9 | 24 | 4 | 2 | 53.8 yr |
| P & W JT9D series | 13 | 37 | 3 | 0 | 41.7 yr |
| P & W JT8D-1 | 8 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 33 yr |
| P & W JT8D-17 series | 7 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 44 yr |
| P & W JT8D-15 | 6 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 51 yr |
| P & W JT8D-9A | 5 | 11 | 0 | 0 | — |
FAA registry data, US-registered aircraft only. Counts reflect the engine model as registered — generic “series” rows coexist with thrust-variant rows, so per-variant figures are partial. Retired = domestic deregistrations (a teardown proxy, not a confirmed part-out); exported aircraft left the US fleet intact. Active tails span every family the engine flies on, not just this one.
Maintenance economics(US carriers, through 2026)
MD-80 family — BTS Form 41 filings
BTS Form 41 data (Schedule P-5.2 maintenance expense over T-2 block hours), Group III US carriers only — filers above $1B annual revenue; smaller US operators, Part 135, and all non-US carriers are not in this data. Dollars are accrual-basis from regulatory filings (reserves and depreciation included), so they benchmark fleet economics and do not track to individual repair events. Averages are block-hour- weighted across every reporting carrier; the range spans per-carrier rates after excluding marginal reporting slices, and small carrier counts are noisy.
Airworthiness Directive activity
FAA / EASA public regulatory data
- FAA AD 2025-09-11effective Jun 12, 2025Prohibition
The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all The Boeing Company Model DC-9-81 (MD-81), DC-9-82 (MD-82), DC-9-83 (MD- 83), DC 9-87 (MD-87), and MD-88 airplanes, and Model DC-9-10, DC-9-20, DC-9-30, DC-9-40, and DC-9-50 series airplanes. This AD was prompted by the discovery of jammed elevators during takeoff. This AD requires revising the "Certificate Limitations" section of the existing airplane flight manual (AFM) to include a procedure to confirm elevator surfaces are not jammed in the trailing edge down (TED) position. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.
- FAA AD 2023-01-13effective Mar 13, 2023Mixed actions
The FAA is adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain The Boeing Company Model DC-9-81 (MD-81), DC-9-82 (MD-82), DC- 9-83 (MD-83), and DC-9-87 (MD-87) airplanes; and Model MD-88 airplanes. This AD was prompted by an evaluation by the design approval holder (DAH) indicating that certain center wing lower stringers are subject to widespread fatigue damage (WFD). WFD analysis found that fatigue cracks could grow to a critical length after the structural modification point (SMP) for these center wing lower stringers. This AD requires replacing certain left and right side center wing lower stringers. The FAA is issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products.
Directives linked to this airframe family in the FAA / EASA regulatory corpus we have processed — not a complete historical AD list. An AD is a compliance requirement that drives scheduled work (inspections, replacements, modifications) across the fleet; inspection directives are not replacement directives, and none of this is a prediction that any part will fail.