These days we’re down to just one passenger airline operating the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on scheduled services, and that’s KLM. World Airways also have some in passenger configuration, but these are only used for charter work, and usually carry troops.
I’ve had the fortune to fly on the type twice as a passenger – once with American Airlines in 1995 from JFK-LHR, and once with KLM in 2007 from SFO-AMS. Like it’s older brother, the DC-10, I found the MD-11 very spacious and comfortable to travel on.
KLM are likely to operate the type for another another few years. They operate 10 of them currently, and have announced the following routes by the MD-11 from their Amsterdam Schiphol base this winter:
Havana, Cuba
Montreal, Canada
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
San Franciso, USA
Tehran, Iran
Next Summer, some additional routes include:
Aruba
Bonaire
Curacao
Delhi, India
Los Angeles, USA (1 of the 3 daily flights)
Panama City
Vancouver, Canada
In addition to passenger operators, a large number of cargo examples are still flying. The largest numbers can be found with:
EVA Air Cargo (Taipei)
FedEx Express (Memphic, Paris CDG, Tokyo)
Lufthansa Cargo (Frankfurt)
UPS (Louisville, Cologne/Bonn)
What are your memories of the type – did you fly it?
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Favourite plane of all time but only flew it once from LHR to JFK with American. Big, powerful and spacious.
A Finnair MD-11 took me and my wife to Japan in 2008. Especially the large windows made flying this aircraft a real pleasure. We spent many hours just gazing at the frozen tundra down below.