Michigan’s USA Jet Airlines to add MD-88 freighters

Eight years after it added its first McDonnell Douglas P2F-converted freighter, USA Jet Airlines (UJ, Detroit Willow Run) will expand its cargo fleet with three MD-88(SF)s, and has secured options for a further three of the type. The aircraft will be converted by Aeronautical Engineers, Inc. (AEI), which said the first aircraft would enter the Commercial Jet maintenance facility for conversion at Dothan, AL, by the end of the month. The other two units will enter conversion in May and August 2021, respectively. AEI did not reveal the identity of any of the aircraft. USA Jet Airlines is set to become the world’s first operator of the MD-88 freighter. The airline’s current fleet comprises three B727-200(F)s, two DC-9-10Fs, one DC-9-10RC, one DC-9-30(CF), two DC-9-30Fs, and a single MD-83(SF), the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. The world’s only remaining operator of a passenger variant of the MD-88 is Iran’s Taban Air (TBN, Mashad), which operates five such aircraft.