There has always been a trade-off between the cheap acquisition cost of older aircraft and the slick operating economics of modern types. And nowhere more so than in the US industry with its sizeable fleet of old generation airliners. But how well will the cost equation continue to balance as pressures grow to bring down industry operating costs?
Analysts are now fretting that fuel prices could soon start to turn upwards after their recent historic lows. That alone would be a major penalty for older types. As crew and maintenance costs also come under the spotlight, that too could tell against ageing airliners with three-crew cockpits and higher demands on spares and maintenance.
In order to put some harder figures on how those costs stack up, US consultants BACK Associates, have pulled a range of industry data for a selection of the main aircraft types. It is based on the "Form 41" database they manage for the US Department of Transportation. Full returns for the 1998 calender year are not yet available, so the figures here have been gathered for the 12 months to the end of September.
The figures represent the industry costs for each of the types, per airborne flight hour. The usual warnings apply about differences between types and their operations - such as seating capacity and stage length. But the resulting figures nevertheless uncover some basic measures of cost.
Among the narrowbodies, the older types, like the Boeing 727-200, 737-200 and McDonnell Douglas DC9-30, notched up total aircraft operating expenses per flight hour of between $2,500 and $3,000. That is higher than for more modern types such as the 737-300 and Airbus A320-200, despite the fact that the figures include finance costs, such as leases, which push up the cost of the newer models.
The variation in costs for areas such as pilot costs, fuel and maintenance can be enormous between the narrowbody types (see charts left). The 727-200 is by far the most expensive for all three of these major cost items per flight hour, while the 737-300 comes in cheapest for both pilots and fuel. Maintenance costs on the newer 737-300 are also significantly lower, but not quite at the level of the newest aircraft in the selection, the Airbus A320--200.
The variation between the widebodies is also marked. The older 747-100 and DC-10-30 come in at around the $8,000 per hour mark, despite their inexpensive price tags. In contrast, the Boeing 777 comes in at just over half that cost. The much smaller A300-600 also comes in lower at $5,130.
The trade-offs between pilot, fuel and maintenance costs on the widebodies are a little less straightforward than for the narrowbody types.
Pilot and co-pilot costs are significantly higher per flight hour on the 747-400 than on the older -200, but the savings on fuel and particularly maintenance are enormous. The A300-600 is clearly cheaper on both pilot and fuel costs - it is the lowest per flight hour for pilot costs and the second lowest for fuel - while managing to come out ahead of the 747-200 and the DC-10-30 on maintenance.
The new 777 is naturally cheaper to maintain and more fuel efficient. However, among the new types, its pilot costs are exceeded only by the 747-400. The 767-300 is the top performer for fuel and maintenance costs per flight hour and is the second cheapest type on pilot costs.
Due to such econmics, older aircraft have already begun to leave the fleet of the majors and more are poised to be withdrawn if and when the downturn comes.
Source: Airline Business
