A Jet for Frequent, Short Flights Prior to 1965, Delta had inaugurated two jets, the Douglas DC-8 and the Convair 880, over long distance flights and between larger cities. The DC-9 filled a different and very important niche at a time when 60% of all U.S. passenger traffic was on routes of 500 miles or less—distances usually served by propeller aircraft such as the Douglas DC-6, DC-7 and Convair 440. Delta's DC-9s brought modern jet service to many smaller cities. "The DC-9… Outside and In" Delta introduced the DC-9-14 to its employees in company magazine Delta Digest in November 1965. Read the article.  Model 14 & 15 Delta flew 16 of the Model 14s: 14 were purchased from Douglas Aircraft; 2 leased from Eastern Airlines. N3305L crashed during a training flight at Fort Worth, Texas on May 30, 1972. Delta also leased a DC-9-15 from Jet International. Model 32 "Stretched Nine" The Model 32 was fifteen feet longer than the standard DC-9 and carried up to 108,000 lb. gross weight. It held 89 passenger seats. First delivery to Delta on April 9, 1967, and went into service on April 20, 1967. By July 1971, Delta had a fleet of 63 Model -32s. Delta retired all its DC-9s in January 1, 1993. They were replaced by more efficient Boeing 727.  Delta DC-9-14s go to Northwest Delta sold its remaining DC-9-14s to Southern Airways in 1972-1973, but the planes recently became part of Delta's history again through Northwest Airlines, which merged with Delta in 2008:
To learn more, check out the Southern Airways website.  DC-9s Return with Delta/Northwest Merger After almost a 16-year absence, DC-9s returned to the Delta fleet when Northwest merged with Delta on October 29, 2008, and the merged airline began single operations on January 31, 2009. Northwest DC-9s to Delta fleet:
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