Originally Posted by
Kargo
Hey Gang,
Does anyone know what the life span of the 88 is? I.e. when will that fateful "heavycheck" park it in the desert. I saw in section one where they get to run the 76 seaters up to 223 for 1.25 mainline narrow bodies, but didn't see anything about those 76 seaters being parked if we lose other narrow bodies. Like the 9s they'll park as soon as we get the 717s.
I did read the block hour thing, but IMO the RJs should be tied to our narrow body fleet.
Another thing thats probably already been talked about; I read that if they acquire another airline we have to combine our lists if we want them to operate as a single carrier. Doesn't this mean they can buy whoever they want and we can't do much to discourage it? Isn't merging with another really young pilot group going to hamper our carriers more than anything else?
Thanks
Go back and look at the Fall 09 UpFront article on the 88s lifespan. They put it at 110,000 to 150,000 cycles or about 20-30 more years on them or they're at their half life right now. I don't know about heavy checks but I know the corporate airplane I ran had 4 years between the big heavy inspections. The problem is as time goes on that 4 year span changes and becomes less and less.
Of course they'll also need the avionics upgrades to continue and hopefully the fuel economy doesn't bite it because frankly, they're fun airplanes to fly.
Originally Posted by
scambo1
A vote to outsource 70 more 76 seat jets is a vote to outsource 2 more Compass sized airlines.