AiRLINES DEFINED AS ageing are turbine-powered aircraft with accommodation for at least 30 passengers (or an equivalent freight capacity), and built more than 15 years ago (before 1 January, 1982). The 1996 Flight International Ageing-Airliner Census covers 38 turbine-powered passenger and cargo aircraft types, designs with few examples still flying being omitted*.
New to this census is the Boeing 767. The fleet data include only commercially operated aircraft, and are correct to the middle of 1996. Flying hour/cycle data are generally as at January 1996.
Much of the data for the census are derived from records collated by London, UK-based Air-claims within its CASE aviation database, while the source for some of the Russian types was Ireland-based Russian-aviation specialist Paul Duffy. Additional information, such as the average fleet hours and cycles data, has been provided by AvSoft Information Systems of Rugby, UK.
This information, covering whole fleets, includes notes for older examples of those machines with high numbers of cycles (flights completed) and flight hours - the accepted industry criteria for recording structural age.
This year, information on stored aircraft (source: Airclaims Jet Storage Update) is provided within the fleet tables. It includes all categories of operator, all years of build, and all variants of a given type (except the 737 entry, which includes only JT8D-powered models). Storage data are available only for Western types.
A profile is included for each of the basic designs which have been in service for more than 15 years, providing information on fleet leaders by calendar age, cycles and hours flown. Original design lives are shown for these. Information on dimensions, weight and accommodation is generic, with the highest value published, where there are alternatives. Maximum weight is that of take-off.
Data are taken from official and unofficial sources, including Flight International records. We welcome input from alternative sources.
Types omitted because of small numbers in service are the BAe (BAC) VC10/Super VC10 (28, but no airline), BAe (Vickers) Vanguard V.950F (one), Boeing 720 (two), General Dynamics (Convair) 880/990 (two), Canadair CL-44 (seven), Shorts Belfast (two), VFW.614 (four) and Bristol Britannia (one).
Source: Flight International
