Air Tran is retiring it’s DC-9-30’s as their C Checks become due and as they are replaced one for one by modern Boeing 717’s. These DC-9s had been ferried in from the airline’s Atlanta headquarters. In one image here you can see a newspaper I found stuffed in the seat back from the airliner’s last commercial flight on July 6, 2002. Most of Air Tran’s DC-9s were ex-Eastern and Delta. Air Tran is one of the few U.S. carriers to thus far whether the difficult economic conditions of 2001-2003. These airframes were at BMI in Opa Locka, Florida.