Originally Posted by
CL300
I don’t know where you work, but I guarantee my employer won’t pay one extra nickel more than necessary to buy another airframe, let alone a few million more per plane. They’ll gladly continue paying us hundreds of dollars to continue operating the airframes we already own. It doesn’t make any sense. But then again, we get our flight releases on dot matrix paper, so that confirms the frugality.
You mean the same employer that declined additional 747-8s at discount bargain prices in favor of “new” MD11s that were practically given to us. Totally agree with your point. Our company is beyond frugal and would prefer to fly our current fleet until the wings fall off. The delta for return on investment between buying a two pilot used 76 conversion and a brand new single pilot factory freighter is sufficient to make the additional investment required unattractive. I suspect the ACMI companies have similar time horizons in mind when buying aircraft.
Single pilot ops is a red herring meant to force pilot unions to waste money and political capital. The next logical step from two pilot aircraft are autonomous aircraft. Eliminating an entire category of labor is attractive. However, the political and societal hurdles are significant. Not worried about it.