hi when most people travel they don’t know the the age of the plane. like when my me and my cos travel we don’t care about the age. as long as it gets us there
In the past the AS team has said that age counts against a plane in lieu of having to model MX reliability. Even though planes in AS don’t have MX delays or cancelations in the real world they do. In the real world older planes are more likely to have MX problems, and people don’t like delays and cancelations, so older planes get lower ratings.
Firstly there are no delays built into Airline Sim, because this would be close to impossibly to model me thinks. How on earth would you contend with the change in schedule etc.
One question, do older planes require more ground time to reach a 100%+ maintenance ratio? If not, then they should.
Look, there are two aspects to the planes age:
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The quality of the interior, which affects the pax
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The maintenance, which effects the pax to some extent if the aircraft is delayed or breaks down, but for the sake of the game it should affect only the company.
Here’s the thing, does the game do a good enough job in penalizing those with older aircraft, ESPECIALLY since the new Aircraft market makes them cheap as heck. Is there enough of a difference in demand from the pax + extra maintenance costs to make buyers think twice about a plane that is 10+ years old? Look at the real world airlines, there is not one major airline that likes to keep aircraft past 10 years, and some elect to replace them even earlier than that. Can a developer comment on this?
Really? You mean if you got on board a 25 year old MD-90 you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference from a brand new A320 or B737? You can smell the new aircraft smell my friend.
i could but it wouldn’t bother me
Sure, you must be a price sensitive customer, but then there are those that fly more often that aren’t so price sensitive and want quality. That pretty much sums up the aviation market, price sensitive, and time/quality sensitive.
i fly with who ever i feel like some days easyjet someday jet2 and someday british airways.
Ok, but back to my original post I would like to know if the maintainence requirements change based on the age of the aircraft?
if a shame delays couldn’t be added
No, the time required doesn’t change with age, just the cost.
I just about ruined a keyboard there! Y’all ain’t from 'merica, are you?
If I’m paying to refit every plane I buy they better be getting fancy new interiors!
No, where I come from they’re still pealing the plastic wrapping off the seats. But America is a special market all on its own. Take a look at Lufthansa or Singapore Airlines, or the Gulf Carriers. The only reason they would be flying old planes is because their new metal hasn’t as yet been delivered.
Maybe both should increase? That is the case in the real world I think.
I’m just worried that people are getting away with buying cheap old planes (especially now that the market allows for that) and are flooding the market and getting market share that otherwise would never be the case in the real world. Take for example the Middle East where my airline is based, there is not a single airline that can afford to use cheap old planes, the competition is stiff. And most pax wouldn’t even dream of stepping on a propeller aircraft, its just the mindset around here.
[quote=“Airmann, post:11, topic:5818”]
No, where I come from they’re still pealing the plastic wrapping off the seats. But America is a special market all on its own. Take a look at Lufthansa or Singapore Airlines, or the Gulf Carriers. The only reason they would be flying old planes is because their new metal hasn’t as yet been delivered.
good one
its the same with easyjet and ryanair
Look at the old LH B733 and B735. They are more than 20 years old and still in use. The big advantage: they´re completely written off
Fair enough. Guess there are still some old aircraft around.
For some reason I always get the really old 737 baby when I fly from EWR-PBI/FLL and back. When the rest of my goes, they get newer 737-900 or once an Airbus A320 D-:
If i remember correctly(someone please correct me if i'm wrong) but an aircraft costs a lot more in maintenance depending on the amount of times it lands/takes off in a day...so if you get a 20 year old plane that can only do short flights per day, then the cost blows off the roof..but if you get yourself a nice long haul plane thats 40 years old..then the cost would be much lower because the plane lands less times.
It's a trick that i have learned in time, so please, in everything you do, avoid getting old short-haul planes and get some old long-haulers..seems to me that its the best option for growth!!
Southwest still use 733 & 5s and Alaska still uses 734s. Not to Mention all the 752s being used by Delta, united, American and us airways.
A nice development is also the intention of Delta to retain their hard-working MD-88s (doing mostly milk-runs). It is believed that all MD-88s and MD-90s will be modified with a common flight deck to ensure a smooth future operation and to comply with new requirements taken into effect from 2020 onwards. All rumors indicate that the MD-80/-90/717-fleet will play their role within Delta for years to come.
Flight hours in a plane also matter for maintenance, not just the number of TO/Landings. In fact, the flight hours is the aviation equivalent to the mileage in a car
@ Nesher, They do count, but planes often have à max cycle ratio and a max hours ratio. For instance, LH planes like the 747-400 don’t have as much as maximum cycles as an MD-80 has. Limiting factors are often the landing gear and airframe stress, so newer short haul planes see à lot of design efforts/hours in the landing gear and pressurization/de-pressurization while bigger planes ( Good example is the 787) see à lot of effort in MTOW, engine durabillity, range and long time exposure to low pressures.
The Fokker 70/100 is à good example… The F70 Will stay untill beyond 2018 into the KL fleet and reach an inservice age of about 25 years, while they often do 10 or more flights à day. Even today planes like the Embraers and Canadiar have way less maximum cycles. It was à product well ahead of Its time.
True, and don’t forget the 70+ 717’s entering the fleet! The MD-88 is à plane solely made for Delta, with à more modern cockpit compared to the MD-83, giving more commonality with the MD-90’s. Although there are MD-90’s with and without digital cockpit. Anyway, for Delta it is much more attractive to keep the MD-80’s compared to AA, which has more sub- types and an average fleet age which is much higher!
@Wsxqaz the 757’s are on theire way out the next two to three years (UA 100 737-900ER, DL 100 737-900ER, AA A321NEO/A321/737MAX). In the end they Keep a fleet of ± 20 for a while longer to do the US-Europe flights.
About WN, there is a rumour that they Will aquire 75 737-800 from FR to replace the 717’s going to Delta, + the last couple of 737-500’s of which the last one will leave the fleet at the end of 2014, with the 300’s being replaces with the 700’s and MAX on order.
So yes, old planes are bad for the company image, and the fact that a lot of US airlines went into charter 11 has also to do with fuel inefficiënt fleets. In Europe chapter 11 means bankrupt… So if we shared the same laws a lot of the beautifull airlines in the USA wouldn’t be Around anymore.