Once the best-selling commercial airliner of all time, the Boeing 727 is now the plane that airlines can't get rid of fast enough. That includes Delta Air Lines.

BOEING 727 FACTS

• Wingspan: 108 feet. • Length: 153 feet, 2 inches. • Tail height: 34 feet. • Accommodation: 149 passengers. • Cruising speed: 540 mph. • Range: 2,200 miles. • Engine: Three jets, tail-mounted. • Crew: Two pilots, one flight engineer, three flight attendants. • First introduced: 727-100 came off the line in February 1964. • Last produced: 727-200 came off the line in August 1984. • Total delivered: 1,831. • Current fleet: About 1,200 (as of Dec. 31, 2001); includes about 900 727-200s and 300 727-100s.

        The Atlanta-based carrier, which operates its second-largest hub locally, has accelerated its retirement program by two years for the venerable plane. by two years. The goal is to cut costs in the long run, but the move could create some shrinking pains.

        “When it comes to the training programs, this is just about as dramatic as when there was the shutdown of the national airspace system on Sept. 11,” said George Blosser, Delta's 727 fleet manager, who also oversees the pilot training program for the company. “Retraining crews is not a new phenomenon, but when you get a huge bow wave like Sept. 11, it creates abnormal circumstances.”

        In January, Delta announced it would retire its entire 727 fleet by spring 2003.

        Other airlines are doing the same thing. Late last month, American Airlines retired its last 727. United has rid itself of the plane, and Northwest is also phasing its 727s out. Of the 1,831 planes originally manufactured over 20 years, 1,200 are in active service, with 300 or so being used as cargo planes.

        Delta has retired 11 planes this year, going from 47 at the end of 2001 to 36 currently. It had more than 50 before the Sept. 11 attacks, which have caused the entire industry to ground planes and cut capacity.

        When announcing it would speed up the retirement, Delta said it would save $30 million this year alone. The airline has not provided specifics on how much will be saved long term, saying only it will be several million dollars annually.

        The retirement will also mean the noisiest plane in the fleet is going away.

        “I know people on the ground are happy, and from a noise standpoint, we're happy too,” said Tim Canoll, a Delta 727 pilot based in Atlanta. “It's really noisy in the cockpit.”

Key to expansion

        It wasn't always that way. The 727 was a major breakthrough for mainline jet travel, serving small and large airports and short-, medium- and long-haul routes with equal aplomb.

DELTA FLEET

• Owned: 30. • Leased: 6. • Total: 36. • Average age: 23 years. • Delta first acquired B727s Aug. 1, 1972, with the Northeast merger — eight B727-95s and 13 B727-295s. • Over Delta's B727 life, 201 different tail numbers were flown, but the most in the fleet at any one time was 154 about September 1992. • Delta's first actual delivery was on Jan. 23, 1973. • Delta took delivery of the 1,000th B727 built; 1,300th B727 built; 1,400th B727 built; and 1,550th B727 built. • The longest segment flown with the B727 was Seattle to Atlanta — 2,181 miles. • Sources: Delta Air Lines; Boeing Inc.

        “It enabled more airlines to extend into more airports that had shorter runways, and that in turn allowed the industry to really expand,” Boeing spokesman Dick Schleh said.

        Delta's Mr. Blosser said the plane was incredibly versatile, used on both short hops and cross-country routes.

        “But there are always newer, more efficient aircraft,” Mr. Blosser said.

        That's why the plane is going the way of the Boeing 707 and the Lockheed Martin L-1011. The 727's three engines use more fuel; the three-person cockpit creates higher labor costs; and the age of the fleet (Delta's average age is 23 years) means higher maintenance costs.

        Although the airline has slowed its delivery of mainline jets considerably, Delta is using the newer model of the Boeing 737 as the main replacement for the 727.

        “It is more expensive to operate than a (two-engine) jet, but those newer jets are expensive to acquire,” Mr. Schleh said. “And that's where it gets into the economics that the airlines have to consider.”

Union trouble?

        Yet for all the money Delta could eventually save, there are money and labor issues to be faced now — especially the cost of training of 727 pilots to fly something else and the resulting effect on the seniority list, which determines what pilots are paid and what planes they fly.

        In the first quarter, the airline spent $25 million on several items, including keeping surplus pilots on hand while others trained, and re-qualification training and relocation costs.

        Delta is having to carry the extra pilots even though the fleet is shrinking because there are only a few flight simulators available to retrain 807 pilots of 727s, according to the head of Delta's pilot union, Will Buergey. Someone needs to fly the planes while others train, Mr. Buergey explained.

        And the logjam in the pilot-training program, as well as the fact that some jobs are going away two years ahead of time while other pilots are facing pay cuts, are causing some minor friction with the pilot union.

        “It's really becoming a choke point right now,” said Mr. Buergey, chairman of Delta's branch of the Air Line Pilots Association. “We knew it was coming, but it is still causing us to lose some jobs prematurely.”

        Most pilots are being retrained either on the Boeing 737 or the MD-88 or MD-11, planes that may or may not pay at the same level as the 727.

        Mr. Buergey acknowledged that the training crunch has limited the number of pilot layoffs Delta could make, “but we are losing 80 pilots because of this two years ahead of time.”

        Most of those who will be completely out of work are former pilots who have kept working as flight engineers after the age of 60, when airline pilots are forced to retire. Another 12 are flight engineers that came over in different mergers and are not qualified as pilots and therefore cannot fly anything else.

        Unlike other airlines, Delta required that newly hired flight engineers, who occupy the third seat in the cockpit, be certified pilots as well, unless they came from another airline via a merger.

        Delta declined comment specifically on the training program, saying procedures were in place to handle the overload.

        “I can understand why the company is doing it, but it probably doesn't make sense to those 80 guys who are losing their jobs, and I'm feeling the pinch as well,” said Mr. Canoll, who is being bumped to the co-pilot seat of an MD-11, meaning a 15 percent decrease in pay. “I'll miss the plane, though. Just about every pilot had some time in the 727 at one point or another.

        “We're paying for it right now, but hopefully it will help in the long run.”

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