By Key Facts
- Aircraft Type: Boeing 717 (DC-9 family)
- Operator: Delta Air Lines
- Location: Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP)
The Delta Air Lines Boeing 717 made its final departure from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) in May 2026, quietly closing a chapter that stretches back to the late 1960s. For six decades, the distinctive T-tail silhouette of the DC-9 family was among the most recognisable sights at the airport — and now it is gone.
How the Delta Air Lines Boeing 717 Inherited a Northwest Legacy
The story begins with Northwest Airlines, which built the world’s largest DC-9 fleet and operated it from its MSP hub starting in the late 1960s. At its peak, the type was the dominant aircraft on the Minneapolis ramp, making it one of the most DC-9-intensive hubs in North America.
Delta absorbed Northwest in the 2008 merger, inheriting that vast DC-9 fleet along with it. However, the original DC-9s were by then ageing rapidly, and Delta retired them in 2014. Rather than abandon the narrowbody segment those aircraft served, Delta sourced Boeing 717s from Southwest Airlines as replacements — keeping the T-tail lineage alive at MSP even as the original DC-9 fuselages disappeared.
The Boeing 717 is, in fact, a direct descendant of the DC-9 line. Originally developed by McDonnell Douglas as the MD-95, it was rebranded after Boeing’s 1997 acquisition of McDonnell Douglas. The type seats between 100 and 134 passengers depending on configuration and was never ordered in large numbers outside of a handful of operators — Delta became its largest operator globally after acquiring Southwest’s unwanted examples following the AirTran merger.
What the MSP Withdrawal Means for the DC-9 Family in the US
The withdrawal of the Delta Air Lines Boeing 717 from Minneapolis-St. Paul carries significance beyond a single route adjustment. MSP was not merely one of many airports where the DC-9 family operated — it was the spiritual home of the type in the United States, the hub around which Northwest built its entire domestic operation for half a century.
As a result, the end of 717 operations there marks the close of an era that few airports can claim to have hosted so completely. The T-tail jet that once crowded every gate at MSP is no longer part of the ramp picture at all.
Delta continues to operate the Boeing 717 at other stations across its network, so the aircraft has not retired from the fleet entirely. Nevertheless, its departure from Minneapolis stands as the most symbolically significant reduction in the type’s footprint — because no other airport in America had a longer or deeper relationship with the DC-9 family than MSP.
