How many types

English Boards General
1

My airline is currently a small regional airline providing connections to my two Boeing 767s that fly to London Heathrow and Tokyo Haneda.

I know that it would take a while to even start buying another type (currently I employ 9 Raytheon Beech 1900 Airliners, 5 Ilyushin Il-114s, and two Boeings 767s) but, how many types can I buy and still be able to make money? I've seen numerous AAA rated airline flying Airbuses, Boeings, Brasilias and others all at the same time..

2

Well. It depends.

You can have 3 maintenance categories for “free”. For every extra maintenance category, you will have to add 15% cost. 

Personally, I have 4 categories on Gatow, due to the complexity of the location of my airline. With my two other holdings on other servers, I only have 3 categories.

Personally, I would say go with:

Short-medium range: Dash

Medium-Long: Boeing 737-600(up till 900)

Long Haul: Boeing 777-X (or 767).

Try not to go with any more than 3 categories, unless your company is really huge!

 

3

Above 3 types, for each maintenance category you add, you raise your maintenance costs by 15%. That's all. Also, older aircrafts are more expensive to keep flying.

Keep that in mind.

Can I ask you one thing? Are your flights to LHR and HND going well? You have two bad types in your fleet and, as you said, you have a small regional airline, then how come you fly to LHR and HND? That’s not the definition or the concept of a regional airline.

4

Above 3 types, for each maintenance category you add, you raise your maintenance costs by 15%. That's all. Also, older aircrafts are more expensive to keep flying.

Keep that in mind.

Can I ask you one thing? Are your flights to LHR and HND going well? You have two bad types in your fleet and, as you said, you have a small regional airline, then how come you fly to LHR and HND? That’s not the definition or the concept of a regional airline.

Well, it should be more of a 'Connector' Airline as of now. The Ilyushins and Raytheons connect to JFK, Newark and LAX and then the 767's go to London Heathrow and Haneda. I have not had either flight take place yet, they are scheduled to begin April 6th.

5

If you bring a fourth type into your fleet but own it, would that increase you maintenance costs?

6

Yes it would ... it will be treated as a 4th category ... regardless if you lease it or own it......

7

Can someone please clarify for me, what exactly a type is? Is CR "raw", LR and ER a single type, or 3 separate types? If they count separately, what is rationale behind, having in mind increased maintenance costs.

Big thanks in advance for response,

8

When you select an Aircraft you can see amongst other data the Maintanance Category. If the Number is the same for example on the 737-700 BGW or HGW or 737-900 etc then it is the same category. 777 and 787 for example are to categories but 777 LR and ER are in the same Maintanance Category. Differences are Spareparts, Engines, Avionics etc that is not exchangeble with other types and so does create additional costs.

9

Thank you. I was not aware of the mx category.

10

I have a question related to this subject. Here is the scenario:

  • I just bid on an aircraft that will become my fourth maintenance category.
  • One of my original three categories consists of just a single aircraft which is currently sitting idle, its lease terminated and waiting to go back to the lessor.

Here is my question (I think I know what the answer will be): will that one idle aircraft--a Cessna 208B--still incur that 15% maintenance increase while it is standing not flying? And if so, will it cost just as much as a larger plane, say, the 752 that I just bid on?

I realize that this is something that I should have considered before making the bid... :unsure:

11

IIRC correctly, you will incur the 15% increase of costs as long as you have four categories, regardless of active utilization or storage. I have this “problem” at the moment with my regional-subsidiary Sparrow Commuter. The airline aims to retire their entire ATP/HS7-fleet and the fleet is stored prior to return. The active fleet includes the Dash 8, Fokker 50 and Let 410 (three categories) and I am quite sure that I have to pay 15% more at the moment (due to the ATP/HS7) until the entire stored fleet is returned to the lessor. I hope that my information is correct.

Regards

12

Thanks for the quick response! It was just as I suspected. Oh well, it will only be a few days.

13

i never understood why the most people are stucked with the three aircraft types.

Currently i am operating 4 aircraft types, the average age of the aircrafts is 9,9 years and my maintenance costs are 8,2% of all costs.

Adding an additional type would increase my costs by less than 1,5%

If i would operate Tu154, 737-200, DC-8 and HS748, an additional type would kill my airline

By using newer aircrafts even six aircraft types could be intelligent, e.g. if one type uses less fuel on a certain mission than an other one or i have to serve airports with shorter runway.

14

By using newer aircrafts even six aircraft types could be intelligent, e.g. if one type uses less fuel on a certain mission than an other one or i have to serve airports with shorter runway.

It is always a highly individual decision and really depends on the strategy and nothing is wrong or better or worse. So you are right. My entire network requires different aircraft-types and I´ve decided to establish regional-subsidiaries because I don´t want to operate ten different categories within one airline.

Regards