American Airlines to Retire the Last of Its Dash 8-100s Later This Year
American Airlines will retire the last of its Bombardier Dash 8-100 aircraft later this year. According to American Fleet Site on Twitter, the last of the Dash 8-100 flights, AA Flight 4852, will depart from Harrisburg International Airport (MDT) at 10:00am, bound for Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) on November 29, 2017.
The -100 is the smallest model in the family of Dash 8 regional turboprops, a commercially successful aircraft that debuted in the 1980s under the De Havilland Canada name, before production was taken over by Bombardier. The -400 model is still in production, and more than 1,000 Dash 8s have been produced so far.
American's 11 remaining Dash 8-100s, which are operated by Piedmont Airlines, will soon be replaced by Embraer 145s, which will offer more seats than the eight Main Cabin Extra and 29 economy seats on the turboprop plane. Tickets are still available for the last few months of Dash 8-100 flights if you'd like to fly the aircraft one last time. At the time of this writing, the last Dash 8-100 flight will cost you $422 for the 52-minute flight.
AA isn't the only US carrier getting rid of its turboprop planes, both its Dash 8-100s and -300s. United is also doing away with its Dash 8-200 and -300s, which currently fly out of Newark (EWR) and Washington-Dulles (IAD). Once both carriers have turboprop-free fleets, all three US legacy carriers will no longer offer passengers a prop option. Some other North American carriers, such as Alaska Airlines and Air Canada, still offer turboprop aircraft.
